The Armstrong Accolades

The Addiction of Golf

tkarmstrong — Mon, 02 May 2011 18:55:25 +0000

I did not grow up playing golf. I don’t know much at all about golf. So naturally, after purchasing clubs and visiting the driving range a grand total of 5 times, my husband and I decided to enter into the Young Life fundraiser golf tournament with our good friends Jenn and Joe Eickman. Surprisingly, we didn’t even get last place in the tournament (we were 3rd from last). Thankfully Joe is a GREAT golfer, having played since he was 4 years old. He is the sole reason that we actually finished 3 strokes UNDER par (69/72). I will admit that we did count a grand total of THREE of my hits all day (it was scramble style – hit from the best hit ball from your team). So after my big experience, here are my new thoughts on golf:

1. Being out on a golf course is one of the most beautiful places on earth. The grass gets no greener, the air gets no cleaner, and the the sun shines no brighter. I think God may have even mowed those fancy alternating green stripes in His grass up in heaven. Seriously, it’s beautiful.

2. You need to wear sunscreen if you plan to play 18 holes. Otherwise, you will have a really cute farmer tan the next day. Trust me, I know. I hate the smell of sunscreen and thus started out the day without any on. Bad idea. Around hole 9 I decided to give in and borrow some of Joe’s spray-on sunscreen. I’m glad I did because it helped a ton, and I still have quite the unfortunate sunburn from the first half that I played without!

3. Yes, golf carts can be dangerous. I drove our cart (safely) through the first 9 holes, and Damon took over for the second half. As he was driving along at top speed (naturally), Jenn’s glove flew out of their cart as they drove ahead of us. Damon of course felt it was VERY important to slam on the breaks so we could stop and get her glove for her. He’s just chivalric like that. Now when I say slam on the breaks, I mean he laid his foot to the floor to the point that the cart even skiddid to a stop. Personally, I had no idea any of the glove-losing had taken place because I was simply riding along in blissful adoration of the gorgeous day. Until I was almost flung from the front of the cart. When Damon slammed on the brakes, I went lunging forward and nearly flipped out of the front of the cart. Thankfully I had my arm wrapped around the side rail of my seat, so that stopped me from flying out the front and landing on the concrete cart path. I’m pretty sure that is the only thing that saved me from a trip to the hospital that day. Naturally, I chewed Damon out about how he needs to be more careful while driving. A word to the wise: always hold on to the railing.

4. Golf is addicting. Damon & I have already been planning our next trip to the driving range so we can perfect some of our shots (ok, they all need work) and make a second run at a full game. I have been thinking about golf every day since we played and can’t wait to play again. I can definitely see how some people go out and play every single day when they’re retired. SERIOUSLY. ADDICTING.

Pitts Pictures

tkarmstrong — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 02:35:04 +0000

Damon’s Famous “No Worries Stuffed Mushrooms”

tkarmstrong — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 00:35:20 +0000

If you want a no-fail, can’t-mess-‘em-up, always-a-hit appetizer, then I’ve got the answer for you!! Damon went to a team building exercise at a local catering company a few years ago and they gave out this recipe. He doesn’t ever eat mushrooms, yet came home ranting and raving about how good these were and kept asking when we could cook them. Ever since then, we’ve cooked them for many a group function, and they’ve even become a permanent staple of our family holiday dinners.

Click here to download a printable version of the recipe: No Worries Stuffed Mushrooms

So here’s how they’re done – note, most of the pictures were taken when we were making a double batch, so the quantities may look a little different than yours as you are cooking:

Sauté 1 LB of hot sausage in a pan until browned. Drain and set aside.

Remove stems from mushrooms. We buy 2 large boxes of mushrooms from Sam’s for one batch of stuffing mix.

Peel outer layer off of the mushroom caps and set them aside for stuffing later.

Cut off and discard the end of the mushroom stems.

Chop the remainder of the mushroom stems into small pieces and put them in a large sauté pan.

Rinse and chop 3 sticks of celery and add to the sauté pan. Sorry, I forgot to take pics of this step! I usually just slice the celery lengthwise so I have lots of tiny strips, and then I chop it into small bits.

Chop one whole yellow onion and add to the sauté pan. Cut off the ends and peel the onion.

Cut the onion in half vertically.

Make approximately 3/16” slices vertically along the onion, leaving the very tips still connected on one end.

Rotate the onion 90 degrees and chop the opposite direction into 3/16” square pieces.

Run your knife through at the end if you still have some big chunks that need to be cut up even more.

Cut 1 stick of butter into smaller cubes and add to the sauté pan.

Measure out 1 teaspoon of salt and add to the sauté pan.

Grind some black pepper into a small bowl, measure out 1 teaspoon, and add it to the sauté pan.

Combine Italian herbs such as oregano, basil, thyme, and marjoram in a small bowl and add 1 tablespoon of the herb mixture into the sauté pan.

Sauté over medium heat until all vegetables are soft (about 7-10 minutes). While the veggies are sautéing, you can use this time to put together the dry ingredients in the mixing bowl.

Put the sausage in a large mixing bowl.

Measure out 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese and add it to the mixing bowl.

Crush 2 packages of Ritz crackers. Dump the crackers into a large Ziploc bag, remove all of the air, and seal the bag.

Use a 2 liter bottle of coke or any other large cylindrical object to roll along the crackers and crush them.

Measure out 1 and ½ cups of the crushed crackers, add them to the mixing bowl, and stir.

Add one egg to the mixing bowl and stir it together with the sausage, cheese, and cracker mixture.

When the vegetable mixture is finished, remove it from the stove, add it to the mixing bowl, and stir to mix. Make sure everything is well mixed.

Use a small spoon to stuff the mixture into the mushroom caps.

Line the stuffed caps on a baking sheet. One batch of this recipe will usually fill 2 large boxes of mushrooms, which covers one full baking sheet.

Sprinkle the remaining crushed Ritz crackers on top of the mushroom caps. At this point, you can cover the mushrooms and refrigerate them until you’re ready to cook them. When you’re ready to cook the mushrooms, bake them at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Serve them hot.

They reheat very well – just reheat in a 350 degree oven for about 10-15 minutes. They are flexible on the time – I have never burned them, even after accidentally leaving them in the oven way too long. You can also wrap them in little foil pouches and send home leftovers with folks. They reheat well in the toaster oven too. Pretty much a no-fail process!

ENJOY!!!

My First YouTube Video Upload

tkarmstrong — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 04:52:34 +0000

I’ve finally done it!! I managed to not only find the videocamera, but I also made a trip to WalMart and purchased the CORRECT videotapes, got all of the cables hooked up right, and recorded myself playing some songs on the piano. And it doesn’t stop there…oh no…I even managed to figure out what cable I needed to download from the camera onto the computer and had Damon go online and purchase said cable from monoprice.com (GREAT place to get stuff, btw!). The new firewire cable arrived yesterday afternoon (on my birthday, how appropriate), so I inevitably spent the evening trying to figure out the whole movie making/editing process. Using Windows Movie Maker, it was a SINCH to download the video from the camera to the computer. When you open the program, there is a nifty little link that says “download video from camcorder”. When you click that link, a wizard pops up and walks you through the entire process. You can even select to only capture portions of what is on the videotape – there is a button to have it start and stop recording as you please.

I had managed to play through four songs somewhat decently, so I got them all downloaded to the computer. Then I went over and setup a YouTube account so I could upload them. However, when I went to upload the movies, it was taking about an hour and a half to upload each one…turns out I had some pretty high quality videos going there! No problem, all you have to do is open the video in Movie Maker and select “Publish Movie” from the File menu. On the next screen, you can ask it to compress the video down into a MUCH smaller file size (original 650 MB file compressed down to 24MB). YouTube definitely seemed to like the compressed files much better!

The new files each uploaded in less than 5 minutes, and YouTube also allows you to input a description of the movie, tags, etc. along with your upload.

So anyway, enough about how to upload videos – I’m probably the last person on the face of the planet to try this out. So here is my NEXT adventure of trying to embed the aforementioned videos in my blog… … … ….

I originally wrote this song when I was in 5th grade, though it has evolved over the years into what I just recorded. Who knows where it may go from here.

This is me playing Beethoven’s “Fur Elise” on the piano. This song is broken into three distinct sections – I played “section A” for my 2nd grade piano recital. Section A is the most popular part of the song and is known by most piano players. Only recently did I discipline myself to learn the rest of the song at the request of Zeth, who is like a “godson” to me. He recently moved to West Virginia, so I uploaded this onto YouTube for him! Unfortunately, my high E and E flat keys are a little sticky, so it sounds a little choppy on the high parts. Oh well…

This is me playing a song called “Sililoquy” on the piano. It is from a yellow songbook titled “Sketches in Style” for piano by Jack Butler. I love a lot of the songs from this book since they’re mostly easy to play but sound really good too. They all have such a peaceful sound. Some of my favorites!

This is me playing a song called “On A Cloud” on the piano. It is from the same book as “Sililoquy”.

This is me playing “Bastille Day” by John Tesh. I learned this from a book that I borrowed from someone a few years ago, so I’m not positive that I’m playing the song exactly as he wrote it. I think I skip the intro part, but this is the main part of the song that I really liked. It’s super easy to play too, so I’d highly suggest it to anyone that likes it!

Hope you enjoy my music!!

Chopping Fruits & Veggies for Mango Salsa

tkarmstrong — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 03:55:10 +0000

On the rare occasion that I *allow* Damon to accompany me to the grocery store, one of the ways he makes it tolerable is to buy all of the ingredients to make his mango salsa. It really is some tasty stuff, and he usually tries to do most of the chopping himself, so I tend to cave in to the pressure/cravings. Tonight was definitely one such occasion. He collected all of the ingredients, and sure enough, as soon as we were done with dinner, he began chopping away. It’s quite funny though because every time he makes the mango salsa, I always have to show him how to chop each vegetable. He was about a quarter of the way through one of the red onions when he decided he could tolerate the burning eyes no more and went out the back door for what I had presumed was to get some fresh air. I finished chopping the onions (I’m going to try to post the technique for chopping onions at another time) only to look up and find Damon standing there wearing goggles from the swimming pool to protect his eyes.

I was laughing so hard that I had to let him take back over the onion chopping (and in the meantime I snuck away to grab my camera and take a couple pics).

So after he finished chopping the onion and I recovered from my laughing spell, we moved on to the avocado. People often comment on my avocado chopping technique, so I thought that I would take some pics and blog about it. I can’t quite remember when/where I learned to do this, but it’s really quite handy. I most likely learned from my brother-in-law, Lucas, who is a chef (graduate of the Culinary Institute of America).

First, you cut the avocado in half by running your knife around the pit that is in the center. Twist the knife slightly and the two halves will pull apart. The pit will remain in one half. Hold that half in the palm of your hand and hit the pit with the sharp edge of your knife so it gets lodged in the pit. Now twist your knife and the pit will pop right out. Don’t throw away the pit – hold onto it so you can put it in with the avocado. This keeps it from turning brown. After I’ve halved my avocado, I take a really small paring knife and slice parallel lines vertically along the whole half.

Now do the same thing, but run your slices horizontally so they are perpendicular to the first set of lines.

This is what it should look like after you’re done slicing through both directions:

Next, use the edge of a large spoon to slice out layers of the avocado so you are pulling out approximate 1/4″ cubes.

You will have to use the spoon to cut out multiple layers of the avocado, with each layer being approximately 1/4″ thick. This is what mine looked like as I started cutting into the second layer:

At the end you can use the edge of your spoon to make sure you have all of the avocado that you want out of the peel:

Now remember to put the avocado pits in with the chopped avocado because they keep it from turning brown.

The very last thing is to stir up all of the ingredients, making sure to leave in the pits. Now you have some tasty mango salsa – ENJOY!!!

MANGO SALSA RECIPE:
1 ripe mango, peeled, pitted, and diced (about 1 1/2 cup)
1/2 medium red onion, finely chopped
1 Jalapeño chile, minced (include ribs and seeds for a hotter taste if desired)
1 small cucumber, peeled and diced (about 1 cup)
3 Tbsp fresh cilantro leaves, chopped
3 Tbsp fresh lime juice
1 Avacado, diced
Salt and pepper to taste

Goin’ to the Horse Races…Giddyup!!!

tkarmstrong — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 16:27:26 +0000

Friday night was a first time experience for us – we went out to the horse races at Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie. We actually went with some friends so we could watch the Eli Young Band concert after the races, but it was still a good excuse to go see the horses too. I had always wanted to go, and it was a pretty fun experience. It only cost $5 per person to get in for general admission. We didn’t actually place any bets, but apparently there are $2 minimum bids so you can actually have a whole evening of entertainment with very minimal cost. We got there right at the end of race 4, so we got to see all of the pomp and circumstance leading up to the 5th race. They have a “show ring” area where all of the horses stand in their stalls and they show them all off before the race.

Then they take the horses over to the track and trot them by in front of the crowd and you can kind of scope out which horse you think will win.

I immediately picked horse #4 to win the first race, though I also commented that horse 1A and horse 5 looked pretty good too. Off they went to line up for the race, and they were off. Horse #4 was in 2nd place most of the race right behind 1A, but ended up pulling through for a strong win there at the very end. And oddly enough, horse 5 ended up getting 3rd place too…too bad I’m not a betting woman…or maybe it was just beginner’s luck.

After the race, they trot the horses back in front of the crowd where the handlers wait with buckets of ice water to help cool off the horses. It’s amazing how hard they are all breathing right after the race.

They sponge off the horse with the water and then they walk them back across to the stables. There are also lots of concessions available, so it’s really nice to just sit and hang out and watch everything.

8 Years of Marriage and Skateboards…??

tkarmstrong — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 04:43:27 +0000

The funny thing about marriage is that it is not an exact science. It (obviously) takes lots of patience, selflessness, and endurance. Today was my husband’s and my eighth wedding anniversary. Now there are certain times when we are very cliche and celebrate in a very “expected” fashion – you know, I get some nice jewelry and flowers, he gets a card, we go out for a nice dinner…blah, blah, blah. But part of the fun (and the best way to keep it interesting) is to mix it up some years and not be all uptight about things. Honestly, it kind of just depends on our mood each year and what we feel like doing. So this was definitely one of those “out of the ordinary” years. We knew our anniversary was approaching and had talked about it a bit, but never decided firmly on exactly what we wanted to do. So really late last night we realized that neither of us had eaten dinner, so we went out and picked up some Jack in the Box to eat while watching a Stargate episode (yes, we’re Sci-Fi junkies). That was the start of our anniversary…the clock hit midnight and we momentarily celebrated that we had officially made it through 8 years of marriage. Then we finished the show and went to sleep.

I didn’t sleep at all last night because my back was hurting so bad. This morning, I woke up and had to go to a doctor’s appointment then quickly drove over to my chiropractor for a some treatment and rehab. Afterward, I did some grocery shopping, cleaned the house, chatted online, and took a nap. Damon had to go into the office today, so I didn’t even get to see him until he got home around 4:30. That’s where the funny part starts. He came in and announced that he ended up not buying my anniversary gift because he wanted me to pick out exactly which one I wanted on my own. OK, so I had no idea where he was going with this…so off we go to the mall where we visit Zumiez…yes, I got a SKATEBOARD for my wedding anniversary! Hahahahaha!!! I just think it’s hilarious that my husband 1)has the guts to do that and 2)knows me well enough to know it was my favorite gift ever!!

I picked out a green Girl Mike Mo Capaldi board, black & red tensor trucks, and some cool black and green spitfire wheels, and reds bearings. Overall, it is a really sweet board – it looks cool and rides great too! I can’t wait until tomorrow when I can take it outside and ride some more!!

After getting my new board, we ran off to grab dinner at The Olive Garden then came home to play on the board. Even Cloe had some fun on it:

Overall, a very fun anniversary!!!

Summer Fun – Frisco Roughriders Games

tkarmstrong — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 15:58:31 +0000

Want an outing that’s tons of fun and not at all expensive? Get some tickets to sit out in the grassy area past the outfield at a Frisco Roughriders game. Take some blankets and hang with friends – it’s tons of fun. Damon even had some random guy give him a ticket for a seat where you get free food and drinks…so we put that to use too! Always fun times to be had at the roughrider games!!

And of course, staying up ’til 2AM playing rock band afterward is always fun too!

4th of July Festivities

tkarmstrong — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 15:48:36 +0000

This year’s 4th of July weekend was very busy for us. We had a great time and enjoyed hanging out with lots of family and friends. On Friday, July 3, we went over to the home of Ronnie and Debbie Clack in Caddo Mills, TX. The Clack family attends the church in Greenville where I gew up, so their kids are all childhood friends of my sisters and me. Years ago, they started a tradition of hosting a huge 4th of July party including BBQ, homemade ice cream, and of course, a huge fireworks display. This was Damon’s and my first year to go, so we really didn’t know what exactly to expect. We got there a little late, so we immediately sat down and dug into some of the best BBQ ribs ever. Later, I found out that Ronnie had conjured up this nice “grill” for smoking everything, which cracks me up:

You’ll notice that in the background, the guys are playing a cut throat game of horseshoes (all sorts of fun!). So while they’re over there playing, some other folks were setting off some of the “small” fireworks for the children to enjoy – you know, smoke bombs, blackcats…that sort of thing. Then one little bottle rocket was lit and promptly fell over off it’s stand…luckily it was not pointed at the kids…but unluckily, this is where it ended up:

To which Damon naturally yells out “hey man, I still haven’t had any kids yet!” Hahahahaha. Wow, so of ALL the places that rocket could have ended up, yes – it went straight for my husband! Maybe we’re just jinxed! Well anyhow, luckily there was no serious harm done – only some fast beating hearts and panick. After the sun went down we had a blast enjoying the big fireworks show, and the guys had fun setting off all of them. I think the “blonde joke” was my favorite!

July 4th we slept in to let the guys recoup from the bottle rocket incident. Then that night, we met up with our friends Lisa & Jeff, Lisa’s brother Greg, Nick & Amanda, and Nick’s parents (Peter & Marina) at the Fort Worth Botanical gardens for a concert in the park by the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. We took blankets and had a big picnic then played apples to apples until we couldn’t really see our cards anymore. The symphony was great and then they had a huge fireworks show afterward. It’s a yearly event (this was our 2nd time to go) and I’d highly recommend it to anyone who’s free for a 4th! PS – word to the wise, prepay for parking so you can park up close.

July 5th, my entire family came over to our house for swimming, grilling, and hanging out (i.e. Wii). My Aunt Carolyn was in from California to help her son Joe and his wife Melody move into the area. They all came along with Mel’s parents. Mom, Dad, Ganny, Pa, Ivy & Joel & the boys, and Lucas & Savannah all game. We went swimming for a couple hours then just grilled some burgers and dogs and then enjoyed some wii bowling for the rest of the afternoon.

All together, it was a great weekend and we had tons of fun. Many thanks to everyone that hung out with us!!

Remedies for a Hoarse Voice

tkarmstrong — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 02:16:53 +0000

I have yet to figure out exactly what it is that causes a person to lose their voice. Sometimes I feel like it is connected to another sickness such as the flu, but other times, such as right now, I feel that it comes on randomly. It started Friday night. I got home from school and then my voice just started to slowly fade away until later that night when I could hardly even get out a sound. The inconvenience of the whole situation is that we had a PCC concert last night and then again this afternoon. We have been working on Bloch’s Jewish Sacred Service since Christmas, and it has been a TON of hard work to prepare as it is an extremely challenging piece. I ended up pretty much just lip synching the whole concert last night, so today I decided to take a harsher approach at clearing up my voice. Here is my overall plan of attack, which I find works best when executed every four hours:

1) eat a vitamin C tablet – I LOVE the big chewable circular ones from GNC

2) gargle hot water with salt dissolved in it

3) squeeze a fresh lemon and a few teaspoons of honey into hot water for a nice drink

4) take the maximum dosage of cough syrup (2 tsp)

Make sure you do it in this order, otherwise the gargling and drink will wash the cough syrup out of your throat and it won’t be as effective. Thanks to these few key remedies, I was even able to sing all the way through my concert today, and hope to be fully recovered by tomorrow. That’s a good thing since I have to stand in front of 5 periods of high school students and teach them math!