This past weekend, for the first time in my 26 awesome years of existence,  I went fishing.  (sorry that wasn’t more exciting)

On Saturday night, from midnight ’til about 5 am, Alex and I  invaded the docks of a few St.Pete homes and went dock light fishing. I also learned to drive a boat. I did okay at the fishing and got scared at the driving. Somehow, moving that fast in pitch darkness and looking out for sticks popping out of the water made me more nervous than anything.

My first two catches were catfish, which I am told is not brag worthy but I was still excited about it.  I also caught a trout. Alex caught more trout and a grouper.

With the fish, we made ceviche (another first for me) and pan fried the rest. Both turned out delicious.

Ceviche Recipe

Ingredients: White fish (we used trout), limes & lemons, cilantro, red pepper flakes, tomato, jalapeño pepper, orange pepper, red onion, sea salt

Directions: Cube the fish, pour lime juice all over it, set aside in refrigerator. Dice the peppers, tomato, cilantro & combine, add lemon and lime juice to mixture. Pour mixture over fish. Let it sit for 3-4 hours, occasionally stirring to make sure all the fish gets cured by the citrus.  Enjoy with pita chips!

And here’s my pan fried trout and grouper that Ms. Ashley enjoyed with me last night!

The fish was seasoned with lemon & lime, sea salt, pepper and Old Bay. The onions were sautéed in olive oil. Ashley made some delicious green beans that had salt and Parmesan cheese.

Drewski and I roadtripped it to Georgia this weekend.  His brother John (#44) and Logan’s brother Eli (#84), had their Homecoming football game at the University of West Georgia in a quaint little town called Carrollton. They just got a new stadium and watching the game gave me an opportunity to take some snapshots with my Rebel, which I am still learning to work.

The Wolves won their first game in two seasons, 10-9 against West Alabama. Maybe we were good luck charms? Below are some of my favorites from the game.

Click on the images to enlarge.

If you’re ever in Carrollton, make sure to stop in at The Border (NOT to be confused with On The Border) for the best Mexican food you will experience your entire life (seriously) and at Empire Grill for chili cheese fries and burgers (wow, doesn’t that sound like a healthy weekend?)

The Border Mexican
770-214-2912
1210 Maple St.
Carrollton

Empire Grill
Adamson Square
770-214-1996

I have a new obsession that I need to tell you about. Actually, if I’ve seen you some time in the past 14 days, I have likely already told you. More than once.

I am obsessed with the Livestrong website; particularly with the “Daily Plate” feature. It’s like a food journal on steroids. I’ve been trying to be more aware of what I eat (b/c I’ve gained like 9 lbs in a few months, gross) and My Daily Plate makes it easy.

Basically, any food from any store and most restaurants are on there. You’d be amazed at the difference where you got something can make. For example: A Publix cookie is about 150 calories while a Starbucks one is 450!

I plug in what I eat and I get a breakdown of my calories, fat, sodium, cholesterol, carbs, fiber, sugar and protein consumed. It is a lot easier to stay on track when you can see what a cookie or steak or fry or whatever is worth.

You should hop on it.

Besides the Daily Plate, the Livestrong site has bajillions of bits of information on anything health, fitness, life related. I learned about Mineral Makeup today (another obsession, for another day).

Ok, that’s all I’ve got for ya. Feel free to share with me if you do it and how it works out.

I ate at the best restaurant

It was so good, I licked my fingers. Multiple times. In front of co-workers and all. Even my bosses.

But it was so good. I couldn’t resist. I didn’t want to let even a teeny tiny tear drop size of it go to waste.

It’s in Miami. But hey Miami friends, I bet you don’t even know about it! Ya don’t. It’s a secret. Well, not really. See, the owner/chef Kris Wessel, he’s been on all sorts of TV and magazine spreads. He wins awards too. No surprise there. But it’s not really where you’d expect a great restaurant to be.

It’s not on hoity toity south beach or anything like that. You’ll have to ride up the 79th and Biscayne for this gem.

Oh and for Earth Day, Kris ran his kitchen with no power. That’s right, he grilled his menu. Even manatees like him. They hang around the river by his restaurant. And did I mention he’s Pam’s cousin?

I ate BBQ Shrimp (most delicious thing I have ever eaten. on the real), an iceberg wedge salad with cucumbers and avocado and a lemon-cucumber dressing, then get this- a lobster and tomato grilled cheese sammy.

Between my co-workers and I, we covered every dessert. I’d be happy to report on them from the brown sugar coffee ice cream to the watermelon parfait.

Incredible.

Next Miami friends get together will not be at Ra. We are going here. So get your elastic pants on ladies because you don’t want to miss out.

My favorite meal growing up was milanesas de pollo con arroz y maiz. I don’t think there is an english word to describe milanesa but it is essentially breaded & fried chicken breasts with rice and corn. Since momma lives 500 miles away, I recently realized that if I wanted to continue enjoying this meal, I’d have to make it myself. I’ve made it three times now. Last night, I shared it with some of my favorite people [which always makes a good meal better].

It’s not hard to make but it does involve a lot of dishes. Last nights are still in the sink [typical, right Lawton?] but Heath and I are going to tackle them today with some help from Colbie and 2buck chuck.

To make it for 6 people, here goes it:

You’ll Need:

(6) Chicken Breasts: at least one per person

(3) Eggs

(2.5) Cups White Rice

(2) Cans Black Beans

(2) Cans yellow corn

(1) Onion

(1) Garlic Clove

Some Veggie Oil

Lot’s of lemon and/or lime

Garlic Salt

Lots of plain bread crumbs

Prep:

Slice the chicken breasts in half, hamburger style. Let them marinate in fresh lemon juice, sprinkle some garlic salt on them

Chop up half a red onion, put aside

Crack (3) eggs into a small container (will be used to dip chicken breasts in), stir the eggs up

Rice:

Pour vegetable oil into a large sauce pan so that it is about an inch deep, heat the oil on Medium [DO NOT WALK AWAY FROM IT OR THIS WILL HAPPEN] for a couple of minutes.

Add 2.5 cups of rice, stir the rice for a few minutes until it is thoroughly coated in the oil

Add 3 and 3/4 cup of water

Add garlic clove

Cover, bring heat down to med/low, cook for 20 minutes

Chicken:

Pour vegetable oil into a frying pan so that it is about an inch and a half deep, set heat to medium

The following steps will need to be done to each chicken breast as it gets ready to fry:

Dip the breasts in the eggs, make sure they’re fully coated

Dip the breasts in the bread crumbs, push breasts into it to make sure the entire surface is covered

Fry the chicken, a few minutes on each side…. repeat

Beans:

Pour (2) cans into saucepan, add chopped onions, heat

Corn:

Pour (2) cans into saucepan, heat

All Done! Pour yourself and your friends a glass of wine and enjoy! I suggest Trader Joe’s 2buck chuck cabernet if you can get it!

I still don’t have a kitchen.

Victoria Grand told me that once I paid the money needed to fix my fire damage, it would be 1-2 business days before I got a new microwave and 3-4 business days before I got the stove replaced.

I got the microwave within 5 business days but it has now been 13 long, cooking-less business days without a stove top. It’s super annoying and although I’ve called management, I keep getting promises of “the missing part should be here today” but no follow through. Worst part is, there’s nothing I can do about it really. Right Lynn or Lawton or other lawyer friends?

Grr.

I am sick of sammy’s for dinners and I can’t afford to keep going out to eat for every meal. Here is how a conversation with Drew recently went:

Drew: What are we going to do for dinner?

Me: I’m not sure but I am sick of going out to eat.

Drew: So what do you want to do?

Me: I have two steaks in the freezer. Maybe I can defrost them and cook them in the toaster oven.

Drew: You can’t cook steak in a toaster over.

Me: Yes you can.

Drew: No, you can’t. I’ll just come over and we’ll figure out where to go.

Me: Sounds good.

Of course by the time he got to my house the steaks were defrosted and half way cooked in my toaster oven (stubborn much?).

 I cooked the meat on a bed of salt, sugar, pepper and ginger. I scrounged up whatever else was left in my fridge and pantry and decided to make a southwest salad.

Ta-Da!! Doesn’t it look good?  To be honest, the steak was a little tough but I think it’s because I used the microwave to defrost. Microwaves as a means to defrost are always a bad idea in my book.

Oh, and here’s Drewski mocking me: “You taking pictures so you can put this on your blo-og?”

Ungrateful little…. jk .

Anyway, so when life gives you lemons, make a southwest salad!

I set my kitchen on fire last night. And I had to call 911. And they came.

Three fire trucks, in their full flory. Lights swirling, horns wailing.  In to Victoria Grand.

But they turned left instead of right and so 911 had to call me and say where are you miss jovanna? And I had to let the 911 man know, your little buddies turned left and they were supposed to turn right. After the gate, remember? But its okay because the fire is out mostly. Drew put it out. Like a big brave man. He took the pan that was on fire and put it in the sink. And then he beat the fire with the Christmas kitchen towel that missis stuy got us and the fire lost and so it was out.

So how’d it start anyway? The 911 man didn’t ask but everyone else did, including the fire captain.

Well, I was so excited about making pork chops with rice and black beans (wouldn’t you be?) last night. I came home from kickboxing and couldn’t wait. I showered and hit the kitchen.

Rice takes the longest so I started with that. My momma’s rice is the best. And it’s because she makes it different than most moms. So I try to make mine like hers. To do this, I heat up a small amount of oil in a pot. Usually, once the oil gets hot, I add the rice and stir it around to coat the rice. Then I add water.

Yesterday, I didn’t get past the oil in a pot part. I put the oil in the pot to let it heat up and a few minutes or seconds later (time warps in times like these), the smoke detectors started blaring and I turned to face my stove and it looked like the fires we’d make at Hayride. Only this wasn’t a fire pit. It was my kitchen and it was on fire.

Drew was on the couch and he didn’t notice until I cried out for him to do something (in a total victim-esque voice btw). While he worked on the fire, I shut my and Heathy’s bedroom doors and opened up all the windows.

Smoke was filling the common area really fast. I took my sucky Blackberry Storm (that I officially hate now) and ran outside to call 911. The touchscreen on that thing sucks and doesn’t work half the time and this time was one of those times. It wouldn’t recognize the touch of my fingers. I ran back inside and grabbed Drew’s BB Curve and dialed. By then, the fire was mostly out and my apartment was one big, thick cloud of black smoke. Drew and I sat on the trash cans outside while we waited. The whole neighborhood was outside. If there were three firetrucks and two fire SUVs outside my apartment, I’d come out too! I was mortified. I let everyone know “it’s not a big deal, I just set my kitchen on fire. Sorry for the noise.” Some neighbors even invited us over for dinner. We all had a good (nervous) laugh.

This story would not have turned out okay if Drew had not been there considering he put the fire out and I had to use his phone to call the fire department.

When the firemen came and asked my story, they asked who put the fire out. I told them Drew did.

They called Drewski a hero. My hero.

I recently started following John Piper on Twitter. I love that man and most of what he has to say. He has an answer for all my questions and he answers tough topics in terms elementary enough for my infant mind to comprehend.

His twitter status 4 days ago read: “Apology for being a jerk, and a new attempt at why I don’t have a TV and rarely go to movies http://ow.ly/fRb4.”

The idea of John Piper being a big enough jerk to have to use his Twitter status to apologize for it caught my attention. My loose lips say jerky things sometimes and I usually catch myself and apologize but I’ve never felt the need to admit my mistake before the masses and post my apology on my twitter/blog. Not yet anyway.

Piper’s blog post/apology addressed the argument that pastors and Christians need to watch TV in order to be relevant.

I am not a huge tv watcher. I don’t have any “shows” I can’t miss. My consumption consists mainly of syndicated Law & Order, some Seinfeld and CNN’s American Morning but I read Piper’s blog post and thought he made some good points, such as:

Being entertained by sin does not increase compassion for sinners.

and

There are, perhaps, a few extraordinary men who can watch action-packed, suspenseful, sexually explicit films and come away more godly. But there are not many. And I am certainly not one of them.

So I ended my Friday deciding that Saturday would include no TV. And neither would Sunday or Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday… you get the point. No TV for one week, just to see how it feels.  I did cheat a little on Saturday. I have a tough time falling asleep in complete silence so I put it on for background noise. But since that glitch, I’ve been good.

My room is clean, so is my bathroom. During lunch today I called people (Cindaayy) I’d been meaning to catch up with and ran 3 errands instead of watching SVU. I’ve cooked more (see my yummy salad below), had great conversations, played with my camera…..etc.  And now, I’m telling all of you about it so you’ll hold me accountable and not let me quit.

A while ago I blogged about being distracted and since then, I’ve made strides to cut some of the noise out of my life. My BB isn’t always on me and I’ve tried to take more control over my thoughts so that I concentrate more on what’s in front of me rather than letting my mind wander about. This TV experiment will only help my cause.

I’ll let you know how it goes. And if you wanna join in, let me know. We’ll start a support group (but not really).

Great dinner guest(s) Saturday night. Recipe compliments of PioneerWoman’s recipe on Lynn’s blog. It was easy to make and very delicious. Try it!

25 T minus 7 days.

I didn’t post all week. I’m a bum. I know. But I was in Tampa for work and had ’round the clock things ta dooo.

Got to sneak away to play with my friend Court who I miss oh so much. The girl has started doing Bikram voga and her arms are like whoa. Maybe I need to trade my tennies for a mat?

Best read of the week goes to Ang again. That girl has such incredible talent. Sometimes, when I’m reading her stuff, sifting through her emotions, I start to think they’re my own. And then I have to wonder; wait. Was she there? Inside my head? Inside my heart?

I’m serious.  Read it. If your heart has ever hurt, even just a little bit, you’ll know what I mean.

Random Facts:

Had McDonald’s 2X this week.

Had 2 pre-dinner dinners this week. One was sushi. One was McDonald’s. Do they cancel eachother out?

I had salads for my main courses @ work dinners but calamari and sliders (with cheese) as apps. Do they cancel eachother out?

100cameras.tallahassee rocked. I can’t wait to do it again. Big ol’ Thank yous to Mint Lounge & Captive Eyes for donating their space!

Wowsie Kohly is the best house guest ever.

Dead.Lifts.

I sold out to my staunch opposition to powder makeup and bought Bare Minerals. Good good stuff.

I can’t wait for Wednesday 11ish pee em.

Seven links in this post.

Heather said to me last night “This may be the best salad I have ever had.” And I made it. My heart was filled with joy. It was a rather colorful salad and so I wish I would have taken a picture to show you.

But maybe, you can make your very own best-salad-ever.

Find a friend to make dinner for and do this:

Take (2) chicken breasts and butterfly ‘em.

Put some olive oil in a saucepan.

Put some olive oil, season salt, ceyenne (red) pepper and lemon on the chicken.

Cook the chicken.

While the chicken is cooking, peel (1) mango and (1) hass avocado and (2) kiwis.

Chunk up the above. Add salt and lemon to it.

Get some Spring Mix Greens and put them on a plate.

Add the fruit/avocado concoction on top.

Add the cooked chicken on top.

Drizzle olive oil, squeeze a lemon, add salt, add pepper.

Pour some vino.

Enjoy

Oh. And quote me on this:

I don’t use measurements, only judgement.