A Twitter Hiatus, and my Greek Style Chicken and Potatoes

A Twitter Hiatus

I deleted the Twitter app from my phone, and logged out of it on my computer this week.  It was an unplanned protest of sorts. Twitter, for me, has always been fun.  Talking with the friends I'd made there, reading their jokes, making my own jokes.  Then, all of the sudden, I was taking it seriously.  It wasn't fun anymore, so I got rid of it, temporarily.  It's been ... like four days now, and in four days I learned a lot about how I use Twitter, and how it affects the rest of my life:

I am probably addicted to Twitter

tap tap tap 

In the first two days, I reflex-tapped the area on my phone's desktop where the Twitter icon once was about a billion times.  Every time I picked up my phone, I tapped tapped tapped. "What is going on in the world?  What are my friends talking about? What am I missing?" I guess I needed that constant distraction. I missed it the most when watching boxing.  (Side note: What a fuckin fight between Garcia and Guerrero. I really enjoyed it).

I can't be idle
I actually talked to a counselor I was seeing a couple years ago about this.  I can't just be alone with my thoughts. If I stop at a red light, I pick up my phone, check my notifications...tap tap tap.  Commercial break?  What's happened on Facebook since the last break? Tap tap tap

Snapchat isn't for me

More dark club photos pls

To fill the Twitter void, I jumped on Snapchat, an app I have had on my phone, but only used sporadically. I quickly learned that there are only a few people whose minute-by-minute activities are interesting enough for me to continue watching their snaps.  There are so many car dashboards, club/bar scenes, dancing in front of the camera.... what's lacking is humor, variety.  I may have just outgrown this type of media. I like DJ Khaled, he's funny...but even his shtick is redundant.







Every single thought and experience doesn't need to be broadcast

Still going to send deez nuts jokes to my friends

I'm guilty of forgetting my audience on twitter.  This is brought to my attention occasionally, such as when a high-ranking Top Rank employee commented on my deez nuts jokes.  (Got eeem!).  This weekend I saw a Hillary Clinton look-a-like at the store. You know that feeling you have right now...the one that is causing you to think "aaaannnnddd?"  That's you not giving a fuck.  Because nobody gives a fuck that I saw a HC look-a-like at the store, and to speak those words into the internet is to waste precious bandwidth.



Twitter takes up a ton of time
I don't have time to do anything. I'm always working, spending time with my family ... right?  Wrong.  One of my coworkers sent me a Mark Cuban interview on December 3rd of last year.  I resolved to watch it as soon as I had an hour to spare. (Mom, business owner...never going to happen).  It happened this past weekend, nearly two months later.  I was at my computer working on a contract and turned it on.  I wish I'd done it sooner.

One of the primary things that Mark Cuban said differentiates successful business owners from non-successful business owners is the willingness and determination to outwork and out-learn the competition.  

One of my favorite quotes from the interview was, "The greatest source of your paranoia should be knowledge."  I got to thinking about how much time I spent on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit (much of the time telling myself "this is part of my job, it's okay,") and how that time could be better used to be successful.  I watched Jobs, a movie I'd meant to see since a promoter I work for recommended it over a year ago.  For the first time in a long time I felt inspired.  I have been working hard, but not improving.  Not learning, aside from the amazing conversations I have with my mentors Cameron and Chris.   I don't want to say that Twitter was the only culprit in putting off having these revelations, but I'll take them.

In short ... while in the first few days I felt pretty anxious about my hiatus...I'm feeling alright about it now.  I may return soon, I may not.  I may parlay this into being more mindful about the time I spend on social media.  I'm interested to see how this work week goes.  Have you disconnected from social media? Why? What changed?  Tell me about it in the comments below.

Greek Style Chicken & Potatoes

I hope it still Tweets out my Periscope...? 

For the first time, I'm going to follow up one of my recipes with a Periscope video so, if you're interested, you can see it put together. I'm planning it around 4:30 pm Phoenix time on Tuesday. Download the Periscope app and add @emilyboxing. Periscope broadcasts are only available for 24 hours. I'll try to save it and upload to Youtube but haven't been particularly successful with that in the past so you'll want to get on the stick if you're interested in watching.

This is a super easy, super delicious Greek style chicken with potatoes.

You'll need
A chicken
2 lemons (I have a lemon tree that is producing a shit ton of lemons. If you're in the area, come get them, they're yours).
Salt
Pepper
Oregano
4-5 potatoes (I use the regular baking potatoes)
1 stick of butter (Not a health food dish. Put the meal prepping tupperware away)
Olive oil
13x9 baking pan

Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.
Peel and chop your potatoes into 1 inch cubes (approx).
Juice your lemons into a cup or bowl.
Rinse the chicken in the sink, and dry with paper towels. Run around after your kids, pretending a terrifying raw chicken is chasing them.  Don't drop salmonella in your wake.
Place the chicken breast-side up in the pan.
Cover the chicken in lemon juice, and rub inside and out with salt, pepper, oregano.  There isn't any set amount. I put the three in three piles and just grab some and rub the chicken...choke the chicken hehe with it.
Coat the top of the chicken in olive oil and angrily replace the spices that run off.
Place half a lemon inside the chicken. I don't know why. Just do it.
Put your potatoes around the chicken, and put about a half cup of lemon juice over them. They will surround the chicken.
Sprinkle salt, pepper, oregano on the potatoes.
Chop up your stick of butter into 1/2 inch slices and place on the potatoes in various places.
Place in the oven for 1 hour and 45 mins, stirring the potatoes occasionally. I've made two pans at a time and not adjusted the cooking time, if that's something you want to do.

Next blog I'll give you a simple salad that is good for serving with the chicken.

Oh yeah, can someone Tweet this out for me? :)

Okay bye.

Holiday Recap (How Not to Make a Turkey), Postmates Review, Prime Rib Recipe

Talking Turkey - Holiday Recap

Escapee

I called this blog post "How Not to Make a Turkey," because ... well, I really f'd it up this year. It was my first turkey ever.  I solicited input from about a dozen people, and got a lot of great recipes.  I just couldn't get the job done. It was probably an omen when I took the turkey out of the refrigerator and the grocery bag broke, sending the poor turkey careening onto the floor.

Brine leaking from the oven bag

I had dreams about this turkey people. I was stressing all week.  I mean...I cook. I love to cook, but this turkey had me all kinds of stressed out.

Our first mistake was brining the turkey in an oven bag, which somebody on the internet suggested. Matthew and I ended up basically covered in raw turkey juice. It was awesome. From here on out I'm going to stop believing everything I read on the internet, by the way.  It was just messy and ... anyway, we brined it over night, I cooked it breast down and turned it over, and then overcooked it.  It was edible, but I basically ruined Thanksgiving and resolved never to make a turkey again. At the bottom of this blog post, you'll find my mom's prime rib recipe.  Stick with that if turkey isn't your thing, like it isn't apparently mine.

"Well I'll say." -My aunt, when I said I might have overcooked it

All in all, my family had a wonderful holiday.  This is probably the last year that my youngest daughter will believe in Santa, which is kind of a bummer.  I had my kids so young that I think I took for granted a lot of this kind of stuff...and that they'd always be little. Anyway, I hope all of you guys had a fantastic holiday...and now back to reality.




Oh as a side note I found these plates/utensils at Safeway this year. I'm big on having a nice looking table, but I knew that I had "Friendsgiving" scheduled the day after Thanksgiving and was reticent to serve on china and all of that, because I knew that after cooking all day, I wouldn't want to deal with the dishes. I found these, Mozaik to be a perfect solution. They're disposable and look pretty. $10 for service for 8. I think it was $10.







Postmates Review


Have you heard of Postmates?  I'm doing a review here because I find myself recommending it so frequently, I want to share it with both of you that read this blog. It's an app/website that allows you to have things delivered to your house.  Having a work meeting and can't get away for coffee? They deliver Starbucks (or Dunkin if you like coffee that actually tastes good). I have had them deliver groceries, prescriptions.... I work out of my home so there are days that I just can't get to the store to get what I need.  They will deliver from any restaurant as well.  If you decide to give it a whirl, please use my invite code (ys7r) because then I get a $10 credit (and so do you).

Pros:

• They deliver anything.  Restaurant food, groceries, prescriptions...  Except alcohol. See Cons below.
• It's all done on the app. No cash changes hands.  
• It's pretty quick - usually within an hour.

Cons:  

• They don't deliver wine. You knew I was going to try, right? 
• They are mostly very young people that don't really know how to shop for groceries. You gotta be super specific...I try to be and still ended up with Clorox wipes instead of CLR one time.
• It's a little pricey ($7 plus a tip), but if you hate the grocery store, it can be your best friend. 

My Moms? (I don't know if it's hers, but she's the one who told me about it) Prime Rib Reicpe

What you'll need:

- Standing rib roast, cut off the bone and tied back on:  The butcher is your friend, and he or she will do this for you. If you want to save time, call ahead. As a side note, I have the butcher do all kinds of stuff like cut the skin off of fish, cut up whole chickens. They're there to help. That was one of the themes throughout Julia Child's cookbooks. I usually ask the butcher to season the prime rib as well. Otherwise, you can make your own, or buy Montreal Steak Seasoning or something similar. You want to buy about a pound per person. Our prime rib for Christmas was 12 lbs. We had 13 people, including kids, and I ended up with a little leftover that I used to make soup.  Around the holiday, stores usually have a $4.97 per pound special, so shop around before you buy. On a 12 lb roast, it can save you $36.
- Large Roasting Pan
- Oven (duh)
- Paper and Pen, tape

You'll want to leave your prime rib out before cooking for 1-2 hours so it can get to room temperature.   Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.  Put your roast in the oven for one hour.  Once an hour has passed, turn the oven off.  DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN. This is where the pen and paper come in. I usually tape an expletive-laced note to the oven that tells my family that opening the oven will result in death and/or dismemberment.

Leave it in the oven for like, I don't know, 6+ hours.  90 mins before you want to eat, turn the oven back on to 375 (again, don't open the oven).  Let it pre-heat, then start the timer for an hour.  Once an hour has passed, remove the roast from the oven and let it rest like 20 mins before cutting it.

Perfect prime rib every time. Fuck a turkey.

Shameless Plugs: 

• My friend Ron Valderrama has started a blog on living a simple life.  His zen way of looking at life has always inspired me so I'm excited he's going to share his secrets :) 
• Luis Gonzales/XTreme Stitch is my go-to person for embroidery both locally and nationally. He's currently working on some custom work for Dodie Boy Penalosa Jr.'s Everlast fight outfit.   He is well-priced, and his customer service and quality are unmatched. He does custom patches and embroidery, merchandise and custom boxing outfits. Visit him on Facebook, and if you've got embroidery work, he's your guy. 

Okay bye.