Help!

Another cautionary tale from Casa de Gibson...

The streak of poor judgment bad luck continues and has now moved beyond just the kitchen. 

Lately I've been getting up early to get in a quick workout before school.  This requires me to go through the garage and down into our dungeon of a basement.  So on Friday, I dragged my lazy butt out of bed and headed down.  After completing my workout, I walked to the door, pulled to open it, and found that it was stuck. 

Like, completely stuck.  No other way out.  Stuck-stuck.

Do. Not. Panic.

Thankfully I had my phone.  So I calmly called Drew, who is dead-to-the-world when he sleeps.  He doesn't get up until right before I leave for work.  So I had about an hour before his alarm would go off.  And after calling him 5 times, I realized his phone must be on silent. 

Do. Not. Panic.

I quickly surveyed the piles of junk that have accumulated in the dungeon and chose a tennis racket as my tool of choice.  I then proceeded to stand beneath our bedroom and bang on the ceiling while screaming at the top of my lungs.

"Drew!!!!  I'm stuck in the basement!!!"

"Drew!!!  Wake up!  I'm stuck in the basement!!!"

"Help me!!!  I'm stuck in the basement!!!"

"Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelp!!!"

This went on for way too long.  I could hear the confused scamper of puppy paws above me, but no people paws.  That guy was seriously passed out.  I half expected the neighbors to come rescue me before Drew woke up.

Thankfully, after about 10 minutes of shouting and banging on the ceiling, he eventually woke up.  He was very confused and disoriented, but all ended well.  And to think, you had no idea this drama was going on while you slept snuggly in your bed yesterday.

This could have turned out way worse though!  What if Drew had been out of town and I hadn't taken my phone with me?!?  I can't even imagine what I would have done... 

So the new rule is, I have to be careful with the dungeon door and always take my phone downstairs with me.  Drew will be traveling a bit in the coming weeks, so if you are one of the millions of folks who has a key to my house (Katy, I'm speaking directly to you) please be prepared for early morning rescue missions. 

And if you don't hear from me for a few days, maybe just drive by to check.  I don't think I can be trusted to be alone.

Veggie Beats Bacon

I survived my first official round of parent-teacher conferences.  It turns out that no one wants to meet their kid's cooking teacher.  So I spent the last two days sitting in the cafeteria with all the other teachers who actually had parents at their tables... meanwhile I worked away like a mad woman and got so much done.  And now I get Friday off.  Conferences rock.

In addition to all the down time, the "social committee" put together a little contest to keep us entertained and well-fed.  Yesterday was Dip Day at our school.  All the teachers were invited to bring a dip to share and then everyone voted on their favorite.  Fun, right?

Riiiiight.  Turns out I'm uber competitive.  Who knew?

I totally obsessed over which dip I would make.  Do I go with a universal favorite (spinach dip), or branch out and do something a little exotic?  Sweet or savory?  Healthy or rich & creamy?  It even crossed my mind to add meat. 

I know.  I really wanted to win.  I'm a crazy person.

In the end I went with my instincts and put together this super amazing sounding 7-Layer Crazy Greek Dip.  My thinking was that everyone loves 7-layer dip.  And who doesn't love hummus?  And if other people brought hummus I had six other layers to kick their chickpea-lovin'-butts.

This is the picture from the blog I got the recipe from.  You know my pics don't look this good.

I was nervous when I showed up to Dip Day and was confronted by about a million different dips, half of which included bacon.  Bacon.  The ingredient that makes everything taste better.  I got super self-conscious and figured my silly vegetarian dip would never win. 

I was wrong.  My logic worked.  I totally won.  My dip rocked their socks off.  And kicked some bacon-butt. 

They made an announcement over the intercom telling everyone that "First place goes to our newest employee and cooking teacher, Jamie Gibson!" 

It was awesome.  I didn't realize how competitive I can be.  Lesson learned, you don't need bacon to be awesome. 

Write that down. 

And make this dip.

G&D and a resolution

I know I'm a little late on the whole resolution thing... it being February and all.  But, better late than never, right?  That's what I thought.

Because we're lazy, Drew & I are sharing a resolution this year.  We have decided that once a month we are going to try a new restaurant.  Don't tell BRGR, but we're branching out.

And, in our standard lazy-ass fashion, we waited until the very last weekend of January to make good on Month 1 of our resolution.  On Saturday we hit up the wildly popular new Plaza restaurant: Gram & Dun. 

Jim & Chris drove up from Wichita to join our supper club.  We're so popular.

Gram & Dun had fantastic atmosphere... and the waiter brought us warm mixed nuts with our wine.  Score.

In addition to the wine and nuts, I ordered the Wild Mushroom Ravioli.  It was so yummy.

Yumm-O.

Drew ordered the Roasted Chicken.  I kept stealing the butternut squash off his plate.  I knew the menu was a bit exotic for him, so I'm glad he found something familiar and tasty.

Chicken & Squash

AND, of course I didn't get a picture, but there was dessert as well.  OMG Dessert!  We were all sharing and Drew really wanted the Gram & Dun Bar.  I didn't think it sounded that fantastic, but I let him choose anyway.  I'm so freakin' glad I did.  I was dying with every bite.  Go there.  Try it.  It will change your life night.  It made me so so so happy.

If you haven't already picked up on it, my impression of G&D was pretty good.  I think this will be the place to hang once the weather gets nice... all that wine will go really well with that big ol' patio. 

And don't feel too bad about us cheating on BRGR... G&D is owned by the same folks.  No wonder we loved it.

I'd love restaurant suggestions if you've got them!  February is calling!