Hello my dear readers. Some of you may have noticed, some maybe not so much. A Kitchen Hoor’s Adventures has finally grown up and I’ve moved to a self-hosted domain that is now WordPress based. This is something I’ve wanted to do for well over a year now and did not have the money coming in solely from this blog to be able to do that.

Well, that’s to the #FoodieFriDIY group (don’t forget to link up this week ) and their constant promoting of my blog and all the other people who are members of the group and link up regularly, my blog is finally getting the visitors it needs for me to start getting paid for some campaigns.

Campaigns from #SundaySupper like the Perdue chicken, Hamburger helper, Beef Checkoff, and the soon to come Idaho potatoes and Certified Angus Beef. Who doesn’t LOVE receiving 20 pounds of potatoes and money to cook with them? Or receiving 8 EIGHT steaks in the mail last night to cook with??

I truly am lucky enough to have stumbled into the right people who have really helped me make this leap to a big girl blog. I just hope I can run with the big dogs at the dog park in the blogosphere.

You, my dear readers, will simply need to do one thing to continue to read the delicious adventures from AKHA; follow the new A Kitchen Hoor’s Adventures on Bloglovin here. If you’re an email subscriber, I will work towards migrating that list this weekend, OR you can subscribe again. I think I have the Mailchimp set up right? It’s on my list of things to do.

I hope I don’t lose any of you. All of you have made this blog what it is today and I hope you continue to enjoy my banter and my recipes in the kitchen.

See you in the kitchen!

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It rolled in.  We had seen it before for a little bit last week, but this time, the weather wasn’t supposed to change.  Rainy and chilly the rest of the week.  Great.  When I heard this along with the memories of a conversation previously about the weather rolling in and not rolling out quickly like it does at home, N decided we should head out before we got stuck here.

We made leaps and bounds of progress the first week we were there, that N didn’t feel it necessary for us to stay there the remaining few days.  My position was support for the remaining work, so if the key person was leaving then there really was no point in me still being there.  Of course, I was doing cartwheels in my head, but remained calm.  Not that I was having a horrible time, but it was really rough being 6 hours time difference and many thousands of miles away from my new husband.  It really was a bit different being married then just being together.  I don’t know how or why, but it was harder this trip.

N called the travel agency for work and was on the flight out on Thursday.  She handed the phone to me, so to speak, and by the time that happened, all the flights on Thursday were gone.  Poof.  Vanished.  Thankfully, the travel agency was on speakerphone.  N chimed in and said, “What about Wednesday?  Can you get us both on a flight Wednesday?”  Yup!  Now, remember, this is Tuesday.  Flight leaves at 7:30 am tomorrow.  TOMORROW!

Lunch was the pizza we had last week.  Well, not the same pizza, but pizza from the same restaurant.  It was delicious pizza!  I ordered a salad to go with my pizza, again.  Their salads are delicious!  The vegetables are so fresh and tasty.  Now I know what my friend meant when she said the veggies in the states taste plastic.  The tomatoes were so yummy!  The cucumbers were so crisp and the corn sweet.  Just like farm stand fresh vegetables in summer.  YUMMY!

Okay.  There’s no way to get to the market and do some shopping before it’s time to head to the hotel to pack up.  So, that means no trinkets and sweets for the office.  I should have gotten some at the grocery, but surely thought I was going to have a few more days to find something.  I guess…shit happens?  LOL

Dinner was the left over pizza from lunch.  Of course I didn’t eat it all and knew I didn’t want to order anything from the restaurant at the hotel.  I just wanted something simple to nosh on while I was packing up to HEAD HOME!  YAY!  Heading home!!

So, the trick to getting out of Sarajevo is to make sure that the plane from your respective airline lands the night before for.  Consequently, I was watching their arrivals website LIKE.A.HAWK as I was packing up.

I had two bottles of wine to pack up.  EEK!  How in the world am I going to pack wine to travel thousands of miles AND NOT break ruining all of my clothes.  One of them was cherry rakja, mind you.  I can imagine ALL my clothes dyed red from it in some freaky, tie-dyed pattern.  Thankfully, the hotel didn’t see my swipe three wash clothes.  

Now, these aren’t regular sized ones.  They’re almost the size of hand towels.  They were the perfect size to wrap around these bottles.  The other trick is to make sure that the larger suitcase isn’t over the weight limit.  So, I crammed my carry on as full as I possibly could to sure that I wouldn’t have to pay a fee to get the larger luggage checked.  N had 6 bottles.  She shelled out about $170 to get those bad boys on the plane.  Wow.  Thankfully, the wine itself wasn’t all that expensive.

All packed up!  Now, just need to wait for the plane to land, then try to get some sleep.  Thank Macy for the iPad and free movies online.  I don’t think I would have been able to fall asleep otherwise.  I don’t sleep well away from S.  But, this is not the first time nor will it be the last time I say it.  I just don’t.

The alarm went off at 5:15.  That way I could pack up the rest of my stuff, check out, and get some breakfast before the cab arrived to take us to the airport.  It took about 15 minutes to get there, about 20 minutes to get through passport check and to the gate.  A few stops to the duty free shop and we were on our way to Austria to catch the last flight home.  YAY!

This is what it looked like when we took off.  See all that fog?  I was concerned that there would be turbulence, but there wasn’t really any to speak of.  Pilots can’t land in this, due to the way the runway is butted up against mountains, but they can take off in this.  That’s why it was important for the last plane to land the night before.  If it didn’t, then we wouldn’t have been able to leave.

When we landed in Austria, we had to stand in a rather long line to get a new boarding pass.  I’m not quite sure that this was about, but it’s a passport check and re assignment, I guess.  It took about an hour.  Then we had some nibbles.  I was DYING for some water and just couldn’t resist some cookies to take  back to the office and pretzel!  HOLY!  It looked TO.DIE.FOR!

It was nice and crusty outside and tasty and moist inside.  It was exactly what I hoped it would be.  It was so good, that I kept part of it to take on the plane with me.  I wasn’t sure how many meals we would get, and I knew I would get hungry if it was only one.  I mean, I had been up almost 5 hours at this point with just a small breakfast.  Considering how stress it is for me to fly, I’m always worried about my blood sugar dropping too low, so I always try to have a snack with me.

We were allowed to board with the special people.  YAY!  I love boarding early.  That way I don’t have to worry about putting anything under the seat in front of me.  I settled in and every else boarded.  There was a slight shift of seats and as luck would have it, I was in the middle again.  This time, I reserved my right to at least one arm rest on this flight.  I WAS NOT going to get gypped out of one again.

I had my book, my knitting, and my headphones for all the movies I was going to watch.  I wasn’t sure if I would even sleep on this one.  I was too excited to get home.  Sleep was going to be a luxury.  Now, I haven’t been on a TON of airplanes, but I’m not new to flying.  However, this was new to me.

A coat hook.  On an airplane.  Yup.  I used it for my coat!  I have a tendency to get chilly on the plane and I’m not a huge fan of those blankets.  You just never know where they’ve REALLY been.  So, I almost always keep my jacket with me.  It was nice to not have to fight with it the whole way home in my lap.

I settled in and then the worst thing happened.  Someone sitting near me decided to fart.  And I’m not really talking just one.  This was several.  And it’s going to take a while for my nose hairs to grow back.  It was HEINOUS!  There is a rest room on the plane, ya know?  Seriously!  *herck*

About an hour into the flight, it was time for lunch.  Or was it dinner?  I can’t really figure this one out.  In any even, it was pasta or chicken curry.  Since pasta didn’t set well with me last time, I opted for the chicken curry.  It smelled good.  And tasted pretty good, too.

The rice was nice and fluffy.  The sauce was creamy and the chicken was too tough.  And that thing in the back left?  That’s mousse.  Delicious mousse.  That thing in the back right?  It’s a cup of water.  It was weird.  I asked for water when the beverages service came around, too.  I felt dehydrated.

I think I dozed.  Maybe 30 minutes or so?  I watched a few movies; again trying not to watch something that S hasn’t seen.  That’s not easy in this flight.  There were mostly new movies.  There were a few oldies that I could watch.  I read a bit.  I didn’t knit.  I watched movies and my watch.  I knew this flight would be longer than the flight over.  You’re flying against the jet stream.  Duh.

But seriously, it felt like FOREVAH!  I watched 4 movies and some Big Bang Theory, which is strange because we don’t watch that show at home.  I only watch it while I’m on travel.  I don’t know why.  It’s hilarious, but we just don’t watch it at home.  We don’t usually watch sit-coms like that.  *shrugs*

About 2 hours before we land, they serve sandwiches.  I think it was turkey?  I can’t remember and for some reason I didn’t take a picture of it.  It wasn’t as interesting as the sammy on the flight in.  It was pretty common.  Finally the plane lands!  We sit on the tram that takes you to the main terminal for almost 20 minutes.  Not sure what that was about.  By the time we get there, our luggage is off the belt, but we don’t know that, so we stand there for like 20 minutes.  Then we see the same flight number on another belt and N goes to ask.  Our luggage is sitting off the belt in baggage claim already.  They cleared it off the belt.  Really?

Then it’s almost 20 minutes in the customs line.  By this time, S has left work and is on his way home.  He’ll beat me home, so he decides to pick me up from the airport.  I’d prefer that over a taxi cab ride ANY day.  I had some apples in my pocket from Bosnia, but I disposed of them before getting off the plane.  However, the FDA dog tagged me and sniffed my pockets.  I had to have the FDA person look in my pockets and have my stuff x-rayed again.  *shrugs*

FINALLY!  I was home.  S was on his way to pick me up, and I had the next two days off to recoup.  YAY!

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As S said, “The only way we’re living on the 3rd floor is if there’s an elevator.”  WOW.  I have muscles that hurt that I didn’t know I had.  I have NO idea how in the world I’ve strained them, but I did.  The worst of the pain are the knees and the back.  I have a craptastic back that includes scoliosis and degenerated discs.  In fact, we both have degenerated discs.  GREAT.  *sigh*.

Hence paying for movers.  Cause hauling all those boxes of Stephen King books down those stairs IS NOT on my list of things to do.  All that kitchen ware?  Boxes of clothes?  Chest freezer?  No.  No.  And.  No. We would have had to start moving two weeks ago.  No.  It’s bad enough that we’ve made probably 10 trips schleping stuff on our own.  Today it was two full truck loads to get the catch all and fridge contents.

This is the old K that I H’d in.  That thing on the left in the front?  OH that’s my baking stone from KAF that S got me… WOW almost 5 years ago?  It’s been every oven of every apartment we’ve rented.  It will continue to be in every oven of every place we live.  Not just for pizza,  but for breads and just overall evening out of the oven temperature, for the most part.

AND the cleaning.  Today.  Note to self: DO NOT wear pants with a mesh liner if you’re going to clean.  Me knees are bright red and swollen from the irritation of the mesh on my knees.  I’m horrid when I’m on them anyway.  I CAN NOT sit back on my knees like 99% of the population.  And I don’t think I ever could.  Ever.  This makes cleaning a real pain…in the knees AND the back.

This is what we moved into:

I LOVE the look of the all black appliances and the granite look counter tops.  We had all black in another apartment, too.  I like the wood style laminate flooring, too.  It’s pretty.

Requirement is a dish washer.  Check.  The amount of cooking and baking…we’ve gone the no dish washer route.  Never.  Again.  Ever.

Even the bathrooms are pretty.  Matching counter top and flooring.  Newly glazed tiles.  Brushed nickel fixtures and lights.

Walk in closets in BOTH bedrooms.  We’ll be using this one for sure.  We’re going to try to get the boxes that we’re not planning on unpacking in here.  The Christmas decorations are already in here now.  Along with some other craft type stuff for me.  Yes, I do other things besides cook and eat.  LOL

The only thing I can think of for this is a bar?  It’s more like, “Crap.  There’s not enough cabinet space so we need to put another one somewhere…  let’s put it off the fire place!  Yeah!  That sounds good!”  The microwave will go here.  We aren’t really planning on using the fireplace, but you never know.  We’ve set up the TV stand so we could use it if we wanted.

No, that’s not the REAL TV we have.  That’s the test TV for when the cable dude came so we could make sure the cable worked.  We usually come prepared for situations like that.  Had a laptop and modem ready to go for the internet, too.

And just for good measure and to hopefully put a smile on Mom’s face *waving at Mom* here’s the infamous H’s KitchenAid stand mixer.  This is about 12 years old?  Almost 12 years old?  And it’s still kicking!  It was a graduation gift from step-dad, A, and Mom.  It couldn’t come fast enough, too.  I had killed a hand mixer on a batch of German butter cookies.  *snort*

I schlep it EVERYWHERE!  Even schlepped it to C-land when I was traveling back and forth to visit S when he still lived there.  It is essential to my kitchen and I COULD NOT imagine not having it to make batter, whip eggs, knead bread, shred chicken.  ESSENTIAL!

So, that’s where this H has been for the last few days.  And tomorrow we’re heading to Rickett’s Glen in PA for some car camping and hiking to see an insagn amount of beautiful waterfalls.  21 in total on the 7.2 loop we’re planning on doing Saturday.  At some point, I’ll be posting about that trip on our hiking blog.  There’s another trip I need to blog about, but need my pics to do it.  It was a weird trail to follow.

Anyway, now we sit watching the Caps play the Rangers.  #CAPS #LetsGoCaps  Missy is curled up on her bed.  She’s not adjusting well.  And really won’t adjust well when we drop her off at Grandad’s.  Poor girl.  She’ll be UBER happy to see us Sunday, I bet.  At least she only has to go up one flight with her bad hip instead of three.  Okay…now I’m just rambling because I’m tired.  Night y’all!  Hopefully I’ll he H’ing it up Sunday or Monday and will have fresh new posts come Tuesday!  Have a great weekend y’all!

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For those new and who haven’t read my archive (SHAME ON YOU) we are in the process of downgrading to a smaller apartment.  ie: moving.  Consequently, the AKH has no K to be an H in right now.  Today is pack up the kitchen day.  I’m a little freaked out about it, but I KNOW I will survive this.  Then once there is a K to H in, we will be preparing to head out for a camping trip in Rickett’s Glen in PA.  So, we’re packing to move and then once we move have to pack for camping.

Essentially we’re packing to pack.  *snort*

The spare room looked like this earlier in the week.  It looks like this now:

That’s where most of the boxes are.  See all my baking stuff in that front plastic bin?  LOL  That’s just one of TWO plastic bins of baking stuff and spices.  We packed 7 boxes of kitchen items?  Maybe 8?  There’s at least one or two more left to pack.  Yes, a true kitchen hoor.  The only other box total that even remotely comes CLOSE is the camping gear at 4 boxes.  And that’s only because some of the camping gear is big.

We’ve tossed junk, made two trips to Salvation Army for donations downsizing closets and dresser drawers, and getting rid of the other bike we had.  Yeah, I’m one of those that NEVER learned to ride a bike.  Ain’t gonna happen now, either.

We’re not REALLY packing the clothes from the bedroom.  We’re essentially moving from one building to another.  This idea may be scrapped come Wednesday, but we’ll see how it goes.

I think Missy has been affected the most of anyone in the house:

Daddy’s coming back, right?

Don’t pack THIS ball.  Yet.

Whoa is me.  They packed all the food.

I’m sure her little mind is going to be blown after we move and then drop her off at Dad’s for some grandpa pampering while we’re camping.  But I’m sure she’s gonna think we’re abandoning her…again.  Granted, she LOVES being around people and with Dad being retired and all, he’s home ALL the time, now.  And they LOVE her to death.  They will spoil her, I’m sure.  LOL

I hope my knees don’t give out for this hike.

I have to say, though.  I’m a big wigged about the camping trip.  It’s a 7.2 mile strenuous loop.  I’ve only done moderate.  Strenuous may kick my you know what.  I’ll just have to remember to pace myself and hopefully we won’t run out of daylight.  Should be interesting.  There’s going to be around 40 or so people in the group?  I just don’t want to feel pressure cause I have to stop frequently if my feet are a pain and will take longer than most to finish the loop.  I really do wish I was in better shape, physically.  Knees, feet, back, hip, now an ankle.  It’s a B to get old.

I have one Foodie PenPals post to do for tomorrow.  I work tomorrow and then we’re off until the following Monday.  So, pardon the absence while we downgrade our living quarters.  I will try to get at least one possible two posts in on our progress.  Who knows.  We may get the kitchen up and running faster than anticipated and I will be the KH again soon.

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I, like many others across the net, it seems, have researched far and wide for the origins of this award.  I, like many others across the net, didn’t come up with the exact origins of this award.  I shall quote many before me on their summation of this award:

The goal of this action is that we bring unknown, bungalow blogs’s light, why would I ask you no blogs to items that have already 3000 readers but talented beginners & people who while already ne while blogging, but are still not as well known.

Yes it’s a craptastic translation from German.  I do not speak, read or write German…yet.  Give me time…

The rules as they were in 2010 are:

Create a post, by you post the favorite blog image & clean copy the instructions (= the text you’re reading). Also, you should link to the person who gave you the award to the blog & in her blog inform them via find, that you accept the award, & you leave the link of your award posts. Then you make up your 3 friends 5 favorite blogs, which you also in your link post & inform the owner each case via the find – function that they have been tagged and ebfalls here give the link of the post, in which the Declaration is available.

Current Rules are as follows:
1. Post 11 random facts about yourself.
2. Answer the
11 questions from the person who nominated you.
3. Pass the award on to 11
other blogs, who have less than 200 followers, and link them in your post.
4.
Ask the blogs you nominated 11 questions.
5. Go back to their blog and tell
them you have nominated them.

While I am very much flattered to have received such recognition from Jackie Kocurek, a fellow blogger, I am hard pressed to pass it on to 11 people.  I mean, I haven’t been SERIOUSLY blogging for that long.  So, I will have to stick to the original 3 – 5 fellow bloggers that I thoroughly enjoy blalking daily.

11 random facts about myself:
1 – I can turn my tongue upside down
2 – I cannot STAND asparagus and call it asparagusting.
3 – I don’t care how YOU prepare salmon (brine, roast, marinade, grill, rinse, smoke) I DO NOT LIKE SALMON!
4 – I am a HUGE HUGE HUGE Stephen King fan.
5 – My favorite color is cornflower blue.
6 – I can pick stuff up off the floor with my toes.
7 – My hair is blonde, except for the rare very dark, very coarse, and VERY red stray hair.
8 – My fingernails grow like weeds.
9 – If there is a blood sucking insect within a 5 mile radius it WILL bite me.
10 – I hate shopping except for kitchen gadgets.
11 – I met S online, playing poker.

The 11 questions from  Jackie Kocurek:
1. What do consider your biggest accomplishment in life?
I’d have to say being on Emeril Live has been my biggest accomplishment so far.
2. What is your
favorite thing to cook?
Cookies.  I used to make a crapton of them for Christmas, but haven’t in a while.  I haven’t really made cookies in a while though…
3. What is your biggest vice?
Starch.  Potatoes, rice, pasta.  
4. Who is your
favorite movie character?
Dumbo
5. What is your biggest pet peeve?
I have to pick one?  Um… people who complain a lot but don’t do anything about it.  My motto, “Don’t bitch about it if you’re not going to DO anything about it.”
6. If you
were an animal, what would you be and why?
Wolf.
7. What is your biggest regret in
life?
I regret nothing.  If I did something different, I wouldn’t be who I am today.
8. What is the first word that pops in your head after reading this
question?
Bananas.  Don’t ask my why.
9. If you were in a beauty pageant, what would your talent
be?
Singing.  I did karaoke once and got a standing O.
9. Would you rather run down the street naked or eat a worm?
Eat a worm.
10.
Zombies or vampires?
Vampire zombies?
11. Do you have a secret tattoo?
No ink…yet.

I’ll have to think long and hard about who I want to nominate.  Right now, my brain is focused on preparing for Sunday’s trip.  It’s also not easy to find someone who hasn’t been nominated yet, too.  LOL

I hope to hit the kitchen some time tomorrow before I fly out.  One last creation before I post about eating out for the whole week.  I hope you all have a great weekend and I’ll see y’all in Bogota!

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C

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Get over it! I got busy!

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