101 in 1001 #2: Take a weekend road trip.

What happens when you combine a couple of exhausted choir nerds, two Upper Midwest holiday concerts, and yours truly over the span of less than three days? 

MAGIC, that's what. Hal, Matt and I made plans over a tipsy dinner this fall to attend a double-header of Luther College Christmas in Decorah, Iowa, and Concordia Christmas in Moorhead, Minnesota this past weekend. With the Luther show at 9:15pm Friday and Concordia at 7pm Saturday, and a collective 800-mile round trip on the books, insanity was sure to abound. 

Hal picked Matt up from work downtown early Friday afternoon, then headed to Lakeville to rendezvous with me (and to drop our bags - we spent the night at the Schweghaus!). We hopped in Hal's car, turned on the Hamilton Mixtape, and before I knew it the 2.5 hour drive had flown by. I don't remember ever laughing so frequently, so hard, or over such random, inane things...so grateful to call Hal my roommate and that him being my roommate brought Matt into my life! 

Matt, as an Iowa native and being familiar with Decorah, recommended Old Armory Barbecue for dinner...and from the moment we walked in, we knew it wouldn't disappoint. 

As Matt struggled with barbecue sauces, we waited for our obscenely giant amount of brisket, pulled pork, grilled chicken nachos, ribs, and assorted sides to be ready before heading off to Toppling Goliath Brewery, Matt's self-professed favorite brewery in the whole world. While he claims he loves them for their superior beer, I think it's because he ran into no fewer than three people he knew within five minutes of entering the premises. Reason #1 Matt is awesome: he knows everybody, everywhere. 

Meanwhile Hal and I took awkward selfies. Wtf spastic hand. 

We headed to Concordia, evaded parking attendants, snagged a stellar spot, and selfied with the giant Christmas tree, with Matt legitimately on Hal's back at one point. 

Having gotten our festive snap of the night, we proceeded to be utterly amazed by Luther's six choirs, the orchestra, and the program in general. I remember at one point feeling like we were just cocooned in this insane, otherworldly environment of pure sound and feeling...with over 300 musicians and singers, the atmosphere and talent was genuinely all-encompassing. 

Once all the amazement and singalongs and genuine mind-boggling performances were over, we met up with Matt and Hal's friend Nick outside the concert hall! Nick teaches piano at Luther and, even five minutes after meeting him, I knew he was formidable and utterly lovely. 

With a gas station stop taken care of, we drove home in time to tumble into Lakeville beds just after 3am. Yours truly, being incapable of sleeping in, was up less than four hours later to enjoy some Mama and Papa Bear time, before the boys woke up and we all got ready for leg 2! 

Hal headed to downtown to pick up friends Colin and Amanda, which left these two clowns with three and a half hours to Ham Jam, sing along to Jason Robert Brown, and talk about everything from legal matters to families to relationships and feelings and ethos on life in general. Mattycal, you are utterly my favorite. 

We made ridiculously good time in getting to Fargo, but we derailed slightly when Matt spotted his new favorite sign/pun in the world: 

I actually pulled over and turned into the parking lot to ensure that this was captured for posterity (and giggles) before we met up with the other road trip crew. Lucky for us, Michael, being a Fargo native/local, was kind enough to join us for dinner and give us an insider's peek at the city. He steered us to the Hotel Donaldson (HoDo), which I had heard SO much about while dating Jon...his friends were all obsessed. Now I am too, having enjoyed their lavosh, half a Cuban, and a mind-blowingly good apple cider/whiskey/smoked cinnamon cocktail. 

The show, like Luther, was amazing and immersive and left me just utterly dumbfounded at the talent of the student body. Seeing a choral show with four incredibly gifted singers added an entirely different dimension to the experience, too...they appreciated both shows in a technical manner that was beyond me and my mediocre singing voice, ha. 

While the rest of the choir nerds had to get the show on the road and drive all the way back to the Cities after the show, Michael hosted me overnight and rolled out the red carpet showing me around Fargo! We stopped at Mezzaluna for cocktails and an insane cinnamon-pear panna cotta...

...before breezing through Dempsey's, The Toasted Frog, and Drunken Noodle, strolling around the utterly charming downtown and taking in the sights as we went. 

Fargo! So cute! Such a surprise. I loved it! 

Having strolled to our hearts' content, we headed home, jammied up and ate the best drunken noodles I've had since my Cambodia Thai days in South Bend...be still, my beating heart. Could've pretty much died and gone to heaven right then and there. 

The next morning dawned with Michael making scrambles and fetching lattes from Atomic Coffee, before a truly comprehensive tour of Fargo. He's a killer tour guide - anecdotes, stories, gossip and commentary abounded, with lots of hopping of the car and exploring along the way. Favorite? Seeing Concordia College for the first time after all these years...it was a big part of my life for awhile there, and I fell in love with its pretty campus, charming architecture and the abundance of corn-related puns (their mascot is the Cobbers, represented by an ear of corn called "Kolonel." HILARITY ABOUNDS.)

Having explored to my heart's content, I hopped back in the car, started "Hamilton" at the beginning, and rapped my way home. Such a great weekend. 

Random items of note: 

1. Never stand next to Matt Callanan during a "Silent Night" singalong. 

2. Don't clap until the VERY end at a Lutheran holiday choir concert, no matter how tempting it may be. 

3. Mixing one Rainbow Mento with two peanut-butter M&Ms tastes remarkably like peanut butter and jelly. 

4. Talking about Wagner with choir nerds is a surefire way to make a lifelong friend (Tried and proven, TWICE, this weekend.).

5. The road from Fargo to Minneapolis is exactly long enough for a 20-minute Mom chat and the entirety of "Hamilton." The road from Minneapolis to Fargo (and from Minneapolis to Decorah, for that matter), however, is best traveled with friends in tow. 

101 in 1001 #51: Throw a dinner (BRUNCH) party.

Doesn't throwing a dinner party sound all grown-up and lovely? I thought so, so I added it to the brunch list. Then I realized that I'm not a stellar cook, at least not of the traditional "meat and potatoes and a side dish" variety. Then I further realized that most of my friends aren't, either...we're much more along the lines of a "takeout and Bitesquad and quick-and-easy meals for one" type crowd. 

Then...I realized that I am EXCELLENT at brunch. (See: Eva's bridal shower, this summer) And my friends? They looooove brunch. So when Notre Dame played Syracuse with an 11am kickoff on October 1st, I decided, along with Hal, that we should turn that oh-so-grown-up dinner party into a good old-fashioned gamebrunch rager. 

And we did! Starting with the bar: 

Iced coffee, plus major champagne with three different mixers for mimosas (pomegranate, blood orange, and peach Bellini)...or harder options in the back for those who preferred it. Please note the stylish presentation in Hal's beverage bucket along with the football napkins and fall-appropriate pumpkins and mums, because we believe in aesthetics at the House of Hal and Lizzie. 

I went a little nuts at Party City on blue, green, and gold serveware...although with a crew of 17 coming, we couldn't really class it up beyond paper plates and napkins and plastic utensils. We just don't have enough dishes! Something to aspire to, I suppose. 

On the menu, clockwise from top left: 

-Hillary, a friend of Hal's and a new friend of mine, brought absolutely precious "breakfast pigs in a blanket" and they were as delicious as they were adorable. 

-spinach-and-artichoke egg bake, as served at Eva's shower, recipe here. 

-Gruyere-and-sausage egg bake, also as served at Eva's shower, recipe here. I stuck with tried-and-true crowd pleasers for the main dishes...nothing like playing it safe with a crew this size!

-pumpkin coffee cake with brown sugar glaze, recipe here. You guys. THIS WAS SO GOOD. It was gone before the party was over, and I made it again for a brunch at work where it similarly vanished insanely fast. It is absolutely decadent. Make it. Everyone will be impressed and you won't be sorry. 

I'm still impressed we managed to cram the crew we did into our space. The couch and every chair in our apartment (including Hal's piano bench!) ended up doing duty during the game. I'm not sorry. 

Creeper shots abounded. 

My favorite bros in action discussing Iowa losses and Notre Dame victories! 

And finally, most of the crew assembled! (There are a few more miscreants off to the side that I couldn't fit in the frame!) Hal and I had so much fun hosting...and, if the 12+ bottles of champagne we went through are any indication, hopefully our guests had fun too. 

Here's to being better at hosting brunches than we are at looking normal in photos! 

For more 101 in 1001, head here. And if you want to come over for brunch, let me know! I'll baaaaake! 

101 in 1001 #44: Volunteer at a hunger-related program.

It's a 101 in 1001 catch-up week, friends - I've gone absolutely nuts on my list lately and am so excited to check off a few more goals! (Nothing like leaving it to the last minute, in classic Lizzie fashion...I started my list in May of 2014 and it ends this February!)

I'm incredibly proud to be one of the chairs of my company's Employee Giving Campaign. This was my third year on the campaign, and it was our best year yet - our special events raised way more than ever before, and we had record participation across our campus! One of the events that's nearest and dearest to my heart is the annual Day of Caring. 

We bring in Twin Cities-based Feed My Starving Children, an organization founded in 1987 to provide basic food security to the world's poorest children. Since their inception, FMSC has grown to pack and ship over 273 million meals around the world annually. Their Mobile Pack events offer a way for corporations to participate without even having to leave the office. This year, my company wrangled nearly 350 volunteers to pack over 60,000 meals in just under eight hours.  

FMSC does an absolutely fantastic job outlining their mission and the impact of meals around the world. I've been involved with the program on and off since my high school days working as a summer daycare staff at my parish church, supervising 40 elementary kids on field trip days to the Eagan, MN packing site...and I still get shivers when I see the success stories of severely malnourished children's before and afters. The beautiful thing about FMSC is that their format works for everyone from kids to professionals...and I really appreciate that now more than ever having seen that action from both sides. 

My role for our two-day engagement with FMSC? Commanding officer, of course! Having done this several years in a row now, I've got it down to a science...from supervising the set-up and transit of hundreds of pounds of rice, soy and equipment, to handling building access and security, to corralling and wrangling a dozen FMSC staff and several hundred volunteers. I kept my iPhone in my pocket to track steps over the course of our packing day, and logged nearly 20,000 steps in just the workday. Gotta love getting away from the desk! 

Let's also take a moment to admire my snazzy hairnet. It's the fashion statement of the fall. (I'm debating whether or not I'm going to regret sharing that one down the line, ha!)

Once packing started, our building's auditorium turned into a site of mass organized chaos. 90s tunes were pumping over the sound system. Departments that had organized into teams raced each other to finish boxes and crates. The FMSC staff supervised and acted as cheerleaders, and our corporate photographer popped in and out, capturing solid gold shots of top executives in hairnets, covered with rice dust and grinning from ear to ear. 

After every shift, the FMSC crew gathered our packers up front for the big reveal of how many meals each group packed. The results were inevitably greeted with a massive cheer...I felt so bad for the departments that sat outside the auditorium, it had to be a day of major distraction! We snapped group photos, and went on our way. 

For days after the event, my inbox was deluged with emails from participants expressing their excitement and satisfaction with the event. From managers and directors who appreciated the free team-building opportunity, to employees who used it as a chance to network or simply appreciated getting away from their desks to support a good cause, it warmed my ever-so-sentimental heart to know that we'd not only done something great for a worthy cause, but had made so many people's days in doing so. 

The true highlight, however? Receiving our official results from FMSC: 

Talk about tangible impact. It's easy for me to get bogged down in the procedural stress and sheer volume of administrative organization pulling off an event like this takes, but, for me, it hammered home just how worth it the event was to see those results. 

Shortly after our Day of Caring, Hurricane Matthew demolished the island of Haiti, and we received a second email from our FMSC contact, Judy. She informed us that, along with other corporate pack events' meals, the entirety of our Mobile Pack's output had been diverted to Haiti to answer the overwhelming need in the aftermath of the hurricane. She also attached a photo from one of their "Hurricane Socials," where kids could show up and receive a meal right on site. I opened the attachment and my heart swelled up like a balloon: 

I'm incredibly proud to work for a company that prioritizes investment in communities, both locally and globally. Getting the chance to pay it forward and make even the smallest difference in the world is a privilege that I am grateful for, every day! 

For more 101 in 1001, head here, and to support FMSC's mission by donating or signing up to pack, check out their fantastic website here. 

101 in 1001 #52: Master 5 crockpot recipes.

Dirty little secret: I've always been apprehensive about my crockpot. 

I know that's lame, but given my culinary talents are limited to pretty much scrambled eggs and of course baking, the crockpot always seemed absurdly intimidating to me. The thought of just leaving something to sit for hours and ending up with something edible seemed nearly impossible to me...I'm such a micromanager that the "set it and forget it" thing really drove me crazy. Over the course of the last year, though, I've made a focused effort to cook a lot more...including taking on the crockpot! Without further ado: 

1/10/16: 21-Day Fix Friendly Stuffed Peppers

I started off ambitiously with an actual recipe rather than just throwing everything in, trying out these stuffed peppers. I've always loved peppers, but had never had them stuffed before, so I had high hopes. I updated the stuffing a bit by leaving out the rice to make these low-carb, and used diced cherry tomatoes and onions instead of green-chile stewed tomatoes. 

Frivolous aside, I thought the peppers were so cute. I set them and left them for just under six hours on low, and my apartment smelled awesome all afternoon. They came out almost too mushy though, and I think the filling could probably have used a little seasoning or something to add more flavor...the turkey was a bit bland. 

Would I make again? Yes, probably, but I'd add more zip somehow and cook for a shorter amount of time. 

1/17/16 (and repeatedly every couple weeks thereafter!): Salsa Shredded Chicken

Oh my god this was legitimately the easiest and most delicious win ever. Take five chicken breasts, dump a big jar of Pace Restaurant-Style Salsa (I used Medium) over it, and leave it on high for four hours. It took two seconds to prepare all of it, and about two minutes to shred it right in the crockpot after the chicken was done. 

I adapted the recipe and left the chicken in the crockpot on "Keep Warm" for four hours after the shredding to enable more of the salsa juice to soak in. The result was absolutely perfect...I made chicken tacos with a little shredded cheese, avocado and Tabasco Chipotle sauce for lunch every day for a week and loved having an insanely good lunch to look forward to. Since it makes such an absurdly large amount of meat, I also hosted a few girls' nights with a taco bar and all the fixings...including margaritas! Bonus? It's incredibly healthy as well! 

Would I make again? Already have. Love it! 

2/2/16: Italian Chicken and Quinoa Soup

I took a little time off from the crockpot because I had so many leftovers from my first forays, but dove back in during the Great Groundhog Day Blizzard because what's better than cozying up with soup in a blizzard? This recipe was not quite as easy as the salsa chicken (duh), but still took me under twenty minutes from start to finish to prepare...and most of that was chopping veggies. 

I went a bit nuts on the seasoning...a ton of dried basil, oregano, Italian seasoning, and like twice the red pepper flakes the recipe called for. It cooked for just under four hours on high while I drank tea, worked, and watched the snow fall. Finished product? 

Smelled amazing, tasted amazing. I let it sit for about ten minutes to cool down a bit before digging in, shredding the chicken, and getting a bowl dished for myself for dinner. I topped it with a little Parmesan and had to stop myself from sneaking seconds while I divided it into five more Tupperwares for lunches. So good. 

Would I make again? Already have, and have added even more seasoning the last couple times because it's just that delicious when it's super flavorful. 

8/5/16: Raspberry Balsamic Meatballs

I made these for a party at Claire and Rabes's place, and have repeated them a couple times when I know they're likely to be eaten. Again, they're crazy-easy and impressive (a general theme with the crockpot, it seems). Using frozen meatballs was an added bonus - although if I were really going to try, I'd probably make my own. HA. It's the crockpot. Let's be real - I'll never make my own. 

Bonus: any meatball recipe I've tried has been incredibly easy to double (or triple, in some cases). This one is best eaten in one sitting though - the pectin in the raspberry jam separates out and gets kind of icky after the fact. 

Would I make again? I have! And several other meatball variations. Excellent party appetizer! 

8/31/16: Spinach Artichoke Dip

Who doesn't love spinach artichoke dip? I made an absolutely obscenely giant batch in the crockpot for a gathering of friends to plan our theater season, and ended up with leftovers for MONTHS (I just thawed and served the last batch a couple weeks ago!). That said, probably not my favorite recipe I've ever used - a little bland, if you ask me. Greg and Laura's mom, our Labor Day host, has a way better version I'll be stealing as soon as possible. 

Would I make again? Probably not. That said, it was good - it's hard to mess up spinach artichoke dip! 

BOOM. Challenge accepted. Coming up as the weather turns colder: more soups and stews (I'm thinking French onion!), breakfast casseroles/frittatas/oatmeals, and maybe some more meat dishes! 

For more 101 in 1001, head here, duh. 

101 in 1001 #82: carve a pumpkin.

Apparently fall brings out my inner basic bitch in a big way. I've been Instagramming autumn leaves like it's my job, my Keurig coffee has been pumpkin spice-flavored since around Labor Day, and I'm rocking flannels, puffer vests, and riding boots at every possible opportunity. What better way to cap off every basic lady's favorite season than by carving a pumpkin? 

It's been years since I last carved pumpkins (in Baltimore with Kaitlin in September of 2013!), and I think I must have forgotten just how involved the process is. Last Saturday, Kelsie supplied two pumpkins - Hy-Vee's finest! - and I picked up carving kits at the downtown Target. Problem: Target's selection was so picked over that I ended up with this as my only option: 

No, I'm totally 27. I promise. Since it was such a gorgeous day yesterday, we set up out on the roof of my building...carving kits, garbage bags, giant knife, and...most importantly...a variety of pumpkin beers to taste-test in tow!

Kels had picked up one short, fat pumpkin and one tall, skinny pumpkin, so we quickly picked out patterns and pumpkins that would work. Then we seriously struggled to get the pumpkins' lids' cut and to gut the things...for some reason, the pumpkins we had were like two inches thick and impossible to cut through! Poor Kels's lid wouldn't come out, then we cut it more and it fell right through the pumpkin. I almost hit myself in the face trying to get my lid out, and by the time my pumpkin was cleaned out, had more guts on me than in the garbage bag. Misadventures abounded, campers. Fortunately, we had cracked beer at this point...I can't recommend having beer handy while carving pumpkins more highly. (For the record, we preferred the Ichabod Pumpkin Ale over the Lakefront Brewery pumpkin beer pictured below...but liked Summit's most recent Unchained series better than both!)

As for what we carved...I was going to try to freehand a Hamilton pumpkin at first, but quickly rethought it when all my template drawings looked like a dude flipping the middle finger. Artist, I am not...and let's be real, my "Hamilton" obsession needs no more fuel! Kels did a bat, I did a ghost. Thank goodness for the pokey-hole pumpkin patterns...although it is seriously hard to get the papers to lie flat on the pumpkins to poke! We came up with the brilliant idea of pumpkin-carving kits on Saran wrap-type material. I think we'll be millionaires someday. 

After poking, we got to carving...and I remembered why I never carve pumpkins. It's really hard! It's not necessarily that enjoyable! Pumpkin guts are slimy! Pumpkin patterns are detailed! My artistic ability is VERY limited! My ghost ended up with very close-together, VERY different-sized eyes...

...and very pointy elbows and a very weirdly-shaped lower body, haha. Kelsie's bat turned out much cuter than my poor little ghost! That said...we were both pretty glad to be done as soon as we were. Let's just say that we realized about midway through why the "two triangles for eyes and a toothy jagged mouth" look is so popular for pumpkins! 

That said...pretty proud of my little guy. THAT said...pretty sure I won't be carving pumpkins again until I have kids and a reason to do so! 

Basic bitch fall checklist: well underway. As for my 101 in 1001...plenty more fun to be had soon! Check it out here, and here's to having random, hilarity-infused adventures!