Culinarily Adventurous

With the recent acquisition of a husband, I am focusing more on a few things. One of those being real meals. Prior to being wed, most of my lunches and dinners consisted of eating out. Such is the life of single-hood. But not only do I have a husband now, I have a cost-conscious husband, so the goal was made that eating out is to be reserved for the weekends or really tiring work-day evenings when I whine enough about not wanting to cook us a meal.

The other day I was making a grocery list and found that I was drawing a blank on what I needed for a typical meal. I had been eating out or making one-person meals for so long that I'd forgotten my standby meals. I get to the store without much of a list figuring I'll just wing it, which I'm actually pretty good at.

The other thing I'm good at when I get to the grocery store is overconfidence. Or rather, unrealistic expectations for what I will actually make for a meal. I read recipes or cooking articles and I get to the grocery store and see asparagus and sun-dried tomatoes and 5,000 spices and baby red potatoes and have instant visions of these spectacular meals and winning greatest domestic goddess awards. It's not that if I bought these materials I would burn the apartment down or kill Jericho, it's that they would rot in my refrigerator before I ever made anything with them. I also get this same ambition in craft stores. I am hoping that Jericho's passion for starting and finishing all of his intended projects will eventually start rubbing off on me.

Thankfully, I was given some great recipe books as wedding presents that I've been able to pull some basic meals from. I don't typically like to use recipes. They're too restrictive. Or maybe I don't trust them. Maybe it's a manifestation of some deeper rooted issue comparable to coloring outside the lines or eating cupcakes like a sandwich.

The most logical progression of this post would next call for a request for recipe ideas or sharing a winning recipe with my reader(s). As this is not that type of blog nor would my reader(s) actually send me a recipe, my conclusion will not be one of recipe swapping. My conclusion is more of happiness that I'm finally able to cook real meals. I greatly enjoy cooking and feel that it is my genes to have a natural gift for it but when you're single, there isn't much incentive to spend a lot of time cooking for one person. But now! I get to cook for the both of us and since Jericho isn't a picky eater in the least, all of my meals have been stellar.

Land of the Palmettos

Here are a few pictures from the honeymoon. (More are located on my Facebook). We went to Kiawah Island, South Carolina. It's an island about 45 minutes south of Charleston. Apparently the island is one of the best golfing spots on the east coast with courses designed by Jack Nicklaus and other famous golfers. Who knew? Maybe if we cared about golf, we would have known. We saw a lot of the courses while we were biking and they were beautiful. Renting bikes is also a big thing on the island. The paths cover the entire island and we frequently saw people riding on the beach as well.

The beach was fantastic. It was a very wide, very quiet beach. It was the largest beach I've ever been to. At low tide, the distance from the dunes to the water was at least 50 yards. We spent one day in Charleston doing the tourist thing. We took a carriage tour, which is apparently a must by all who visit Charleston, and learned so much about the city's history. It's a beautiful historic town in such amazing condition. Jericho and I were trying to think of a city that is comparable in its historical makeup and we couldn't come up with one. So much of the city is in it's original form (but restored of course). We definitely want to go back and attempt to see more of the sites in and around Charleston. I really fell in love with the city. If it wasn't in South Carolina, I might consider moving there someday.

This is an original house that has been restored and is still used as a residence. A lot of these houses run more than a million dollars. You wouldn't think so when they have a station wagon parked in front.

Rainbow Row. It's very normal for houses to be painted these bright colors.

More beautiful old buildings.

The Battery. You can see Fort Sumter from here. The other side of the street is lined with gorgeous Charleston houses.

Waterfront Park and a really big cannon. The cannons are not in their original place. Some of them were from Fort Sumter.

One of the great places we ate for dinner. I had my first experience with boiled peanuts. We sat outside at almost every restaurant we went to that week since the weather was so great.

The Angel Oak. It's more than 1,500 years old. That's Jericho standing at the base. I couldn't back up far enough to get the whole tree in my camera lens. All the low branches reach out so far that they are resting on the ground and the branches that aren't on the ground, they have propped up with boards and metal poles. I guess after 1,500 years, you get tired of holding your arms up.

One of the waterways on our bike ride. No visible alligators in this one.

Downtown Charleston one night after dinner. Our only pictures of ourselves from the trip are self-portraits so they all look kind of like this.

There's an alligator in there. I promise. This one is on the bike ride. See my Facebook album for the one of Allie, the resident alligator behind our villa.

More from bike riding. Most of the island is covered by trees. I don't think I've ever been on an island with such a dense canopy. Most have giant beach houses towering over everything. At Kiawah, the giant beach houses are hidden in all the trees. It made for very cool bike rides. I understand the phrase, "It's just like riding a bike," but in reality, if you haven't ridden a bike for almost 10 years, it can take some adjusting, especially if there are no hand brakes.

What is tolerance?

I'm sorry. I've had this little political post in my queue for a while so I figured I'd get it out of draft mode and post it. I found this comment in an online article about the Miss California comment in the recent Miss America pageant. This guy gives a great summation of a main problem in this country. I was so excited when I read it. I'm pretty sure I did a mental punch in the air with an exclamation of "That's right man!"

I believe we have completely changed the meaning of the word “tolerant” in this country. “Tolerant” used to mean that you respected individuals but that you could agree to disagree. Thanks to extreme progressive groups such as the ACLU “tolerant” now means you have to agree that everyone’s point of view is equally correct and that there is no absolute moral truth; moral truth is what each individual says it is. How twisted we have become when you are labeled a “homophobe” just because you believe homosexuality is wrong or that marriage should be between a man and a woman alone. You are automatically branded a bigot and subhuman. I still believe that you have to respect other people; you have to show them respect and treat them with dignity, but I do not believe a person is “intolerant” simply because they choose to disagree with others on issues such as homosexuality. In fact, I would argue that those who claim such people as intolerant are equally guilty of interolance. Finally, just so we don’t get too full of ourselves, conservatives have done themselves no favors in this matter. We have clearly treated homosexuality as somehow worse than any other kind of sin and have not always treated the gay community with basic respect and dignity all the while we have been guilty of equal sin when we flip someone off in traffic, tell a white lie to our bosses, have heterosexual extramarital affairs. Sin is sin, there are no levels. And no one is better than anyone else.

Content Pending

Being back from they honeymoon and back at work, I realized it was probably time to direct some attention back to the blog. I feel so empty not having somewhere to record all the haps from the past few weeks of my life. Alas, that time has not quite come. For now, the first task on revisiting the blog was a makeover, as you can see. Thoughts? Comments? Complaints? It was time for something new. So I picked something new. And a little more refined.

The other reason this is mainly just a filler post is because I do not have wedding pictures yet. It's not even been two weeks so I'm not expecting them to be ready by now. Rest assured, there will be pretty pictures to look at. Let's be honest, who wants to read boring recitations on politics when there are pretty, pretty pictures!!

The second reason why this is a filler is because my personal computer is dead [mac]. I know not why. It just is [mac]. I came back from my honeymoon [mac] after leaving it in the custody of my family, [mac] and it was dead, to no fault of theirs though. I think it's just [mac] getting old. It has been acting up over the last few months and I've been [mac] dropping hints to Jericho that maybe it's [mac] time to replace it since it is over 4 years old. Not sure what I'll replace it with though... hm....

With my computer being dead and the fact that we don't have internet at our apartment yet, I only have internet when using Jericho's computer, where any recent pictures are housed, or at work, where there are no pictures. Plus, I work at work. Mostly.

So with that, all I have to say is, pictures are coming. Lots and lots of pictures. This was just a new post to voice that I am in fact home and gearing back up the blog.

Woot!! Woot!!

Today. I am getting married. You are probably asking why I am on my computer on the morning of my wedding day. Luckily my mother has laid out all the tasks today to not include me. I get to work on de-frizzing my hair and other such important bridal tasks. I don't think I'll have the chance later today to make a little jot in my journal about getting married so this is my written record. On May 2, 2009, I am getting married. Right now, I am Kelley Smith, single. Tonight, I will be Kelley Belcher, married. Well not legally until I fill out a bunch of paperwork. Those who know me, know that I'm not a roses and romance kind of girl, but regardless, I'm pretty stinkin excited about this awesome day. Halla!!!