Bed and Breakfast

Something that I have wanted to do for the longest time is run a bed and breakfast. Ok, I'd like to OWN the bed and breakfast and also run it. I know I probably have a very glorified idea of what would be involved in this particular business venture, but I honestly think I would enjoy it a lot. I would love answering the phone and booking the rooms, putting clean bedding on the beds, checking people in and out, coming up with new and exciting breakfast recipes, shopping for little spa baskets and special soaps for the bathrooms. Shoot, even the laundry sounds fun.

I have only stayed in one bed and breakfast in my life. It was a little place in Shipshewana, Indiana: Amish country. The part we stayed in was a converted barn and they had pretty little quilts on all the beds. I fell in love.

I love the idea because it's so much smaller and more personal than a hotel. You'd get to meet so many people and hear so many interesting life stories. And I would have some super well-behaved dogs like Kitty is becoming (fingers crossed!) that would lie around the place and everyone would love.

So again, rich benefactors, if you would like to invest in a bed and breakfast, I'm your girl to run it.. at least until I make enough money to buy my own place! Here is a little something to get you started: http://www.bamboogroupsa.com/?section=detail&code=AH001

Moving stuff around

Ok, so this is going to be a weird one. My husband was telling me about this department in his company that is in charge of moving stuff around. Here's the idea- his company is always moving, closing, opening and merging smaller branches of offices all over the city and suburbs. So there is an entire department that solely exists to keep track of all of their furniture- desks, chairs, lamps, etc- move them to and from their warehouse, make sure that everything gets to the right place at the right time and make sure that each office has what it needs. They have crews of guys that do the actual, physical moving of the office equipment.

Even weirder, this job sounds fascinating to me. I love minutiae. (sp?) I love making sure I have enough of everything and thinking ahead, prioritizing, planning. Which is hilarious, because I am the most disorganized person ever. But as I thought about it some more, I realized that it would really only be fun for maybe a month. And then I would start having these nagging questions in the back of my mind- Does what I do matter? Am I contributing anything remotely valuable to the world?

I already have these questions about teaching school, which is supposed to be the most fulfilling job in the world. So I don't think I would come up with any more fulfilling feelings from making sure that there are enough desks in the Main Street office.

Acquisitions editor

Well it's a good thing that I postponed my post about being an editor because I have narrowed down my editorial aspirations. I don't just want to be an editor, I want to be an acquisitions editor. I want to be an editor because all I ever want to do is read books. Imagine reading for a living! The reason I want to work in acquisitions is because you get to read all the new manuscripts and decide which ones to publish. If I do say so myself, I think I have pretty decent taste in books. At this point in my life, I also think it would be fun to work with words, and maybe a few people. One of the things that is wearing on me about teaching is all the people I see all the time. Having 140+ kids marching in and out of my classroom is getting a little rough for my introverted soul.

Editor

This has been one of the craziest weeks ever. It always is. It is... Homecoming Week, a.k.a. the week where kids won't pay attention to anything, regardless of how much time you put into planning the class. First of all, the kids are all encouraged to wear different themed outfits each day of the week.

Monday was Pajama Day. Who, in their right mind, would choose to encourage TEENAGERS to wear PAJAMAS on a MONDAY?! Let's just say we didn't get much done that day. While we're being honest, let's also just say that I happily partook in the pajama wearing.

Tuesday was ugly sweater day. The rule was that the kids could wear jeans only if they had on an ugly sweater. Otherwise, they had to be in full dress code.Now I know that people say our educational system is getting a little lax and that families are breaking down and kids don't know as much as they used to. I have seen brief glimpses of the truth in that here and there but never more so than on Tuesday. It never occurred to me that kids would have any question about the definition of a sweater. No, a sweatshirt is not a sweater. No, a long sleeve t-shirt is not a sweater. No, a big T-shirt with the arms cut off is not a sweater. I decided to not even get into the argument of what would constitute ugliness or not. As long as the kid had on a SWEATER, I let them squeak by. But can I get any amens out there that a solid navy blue American Eagle sweater is probably not an ugly sweater? Come on.

Wednesday was decades day. I was trying to decide what I should wear for decades day and wasn't coming up with much. Somebody suggested to me that I wear a poodle skirt. 2 questions- 1> Why would anyone assume that I would just have a poodle skirt lying around my house? 2> Since I do, however, have a real poodle, could I somehow attach my real poodle onto a skirt and wear that? I settled on dressing as a hippie.

Thursday was tie-dye day. I had no incident with this day. Neither did I have any tie-dyed items to wear. I did, however, overhear a kid trying to explain to another teacher that their shirt used to be tie-dyed, but it had washed out.

Friday, today, was a spirit day. So Freshmen and Seniors wore blue, Sophomores and Juniors wore white. It was a pretty good day. We had shortened classes, a pep assembly and then they fed us all hot dogs, chips, cookies and soda. And then we all got to leave early. Amen.

I never even got to the editor part of my post. Apparently I need an editor to keep me on track. I will leave the title, however, to entice you to read all about how I want to be an editor whenever I should happen to blog again. It could be tomorrow, it could be never.

Chocolatier

Before I jump into my next vocational venture, I must start with this side-note. I got into a cooking frenzy today (it's called avoiding schoolwork) and now I have chocolate chip pumpkin bread and chipotle lentil soup going at the same time. My house smells.. interesting. It's kind of disgusting, to be honest. I firmly believe that they will both turn out superbly. I also firmly believe that I will not serve them together.

My dream job of today is to be a chocolatier. The movie in my head has me tromping around the rainforests of south america, finding the perfect cocoa bean suppliers and improving peoples' lives dramatically by discovering their cocoa crops and helping these small farmers succeed. Then I see myself in my spotless, Spanish colonial chocolate kitchen crafting artistic masterpieces that critics will rave as 'sinfully divine'- wrap your head around that one! Aaahhh. What a great life.

I tried my hand at chocolatiering last summer (2009). It was an interesting, inspiring, and frustrating journey. And by journey, I mean that I made maybe 2 different batches chocolates. I made lemon ganache truffles and chocolate covered caramels. Yes I made the ganache and caramels by hand, thank you very much. Both chocolates TASTED good but chocolate is tremendously fussy and it never quite set up like I wanted it to. Oh, add expensive to the list of adjectives that describe my chocolatiering journey. Once you start buying things like candy thermometers, dipping forks, vanilla beans and Scharffen Berger chocolate, it really starts to add up. So if anyone has loads of money and would like to send me to culinary school to learn what the heck I'm doing, buy all of my equipment and ingredients, and fund my expeditions to South America, please respond in the comments section. :)

Party Planner

I have been thinking a lot lately about what I want to do with the rest of my life. At this stage in the school year, I don't want to ever teach again and I find myself interested in so many different careers. So maybe I'll blog about all the ideas I have. If you have any suggestions, just jump on in and give me some advice!

Today I want to be a wedding coordinator or party planner. I would love to just consume myself with flower arrangements and cake and photography. Keith and I were picking up a cake at a bakery this morning and I was imagining that I was a wedding planner. It was the morning of the wedding that I was planning and I was picking up a dozen donuts and taking them over as a little surprise for the bride and her friends as they were getting ready. Aren't I just so thoughtful?!

The only problems I can foresee are as follows: weddings and parties are stressful and people get crazy when they're stressed. I don't know that I would want to always deal with stressed-out people. Also, weddings and parties are always on the weekends, so I would always have to work when other people are off. Thus my only friends would be other party planners.

Home free

So Keith has been out of town for the last two days and comes home tonight. I can barely remember any other time when he has gone out of town without me. I am always up and leaving him to go here, there and everywhere. So when this little trip came up, I got so excited about what I would do with my free time. Hurray! I could do anything I wanted, eat anything I wanted, accomplish any sweaty, annoying task I wanted.. So I watched loads of HGTV and Gilmore girls, made flan from scratch (astonishingly simple recipe at the end of this post), purged my pantry of everything that had already expired- some expiration dates were 2007!! Now I know that my grandma could beat me hands down on that. I'm sure she has things that expired in the 80s, but for someone who just started keeping their own house in 2006, it's pretty horrifying. I organized said pantry and it looks so beautiful! The only problem is that everything is exactly in its place and there is no room for anything else. So each time I find something randomly in my living room or bedroom that should be in my pantry (hey, I'm still new at this..), I freak out. And I'm looking at my grocery shopping list and having a little panic attack about where I will put the staples that I have run out of.
The other huge task that I accomplished was sorting through all of my clothes and getting them in the right place. Because of several trips and LOTs of laziness, I had accumulated quite a little pile of clothing on top of my dresser. Now the dresser top is visible again, my old, stained or torn clothes have been thrown away or put in Kitty's little house so she can rip them even more, my closet is organized and my drawers are full. What a good feeling.
Now I am surveying the house and I see a million other projects calling my name- sort through old mail and papers, take out the recycling, do laundry, straighten the living room, clean out the car so we can sell it, sweep the porch and replant the pots whose plants died..
I have one thing to say. COME HOME KEITH!!! I can't handle any more projects.


Frighteningly Easy Flan:
Mix together
8 eggs
1 can (14 oz) sweetened, condensed milk
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

In a pan, melt down 1 1/2 C sugar until it becomes a thin caramel and turns golden brown. (don't stir until it is pretty well melted!) Pour this caramel in the bottom of a 9" cake pan.
Add the egg/milk/vanilla mixture.
Put the cake pan in a larger pan with some water in it and bake at 300 degrees for 70 minutes. Run a knife around the edges and flip onto a plate (with edges to hold in the caramel!) and let cool.
The end.

Kitty

This is my puppy, Kitty. She is a little curly mass and we are starting to just love her. In an ideal world, we would have loved her all along, but a few sleepless nights and little mishaps made it difficult. But now she sleeps until 7 am and she only potties outside and she is wonderful.

 I know all you dog people will look at this picture and have an instant little heart attack about a wire being so close to a puppy. Uhh... a puppy being so close to a wire. Whatever. Same thing. Another thing that makes Kitty wonderful is that she leaves wires alone. Yes, yes, dog lovers of America, I will make sure they are out of the way if she is ever home alone and out of her crate.

One great thing about Kitty is that she loves to play with just about anything. One of her favorite toys right now is toilet paper tubes. She can play with them for hours and she gets them stuck on her nose like this:

On Friday, I took my curly little puppy to the groomer because poodles have to get all kinds of grooming done that I was not quite up for doing- like pulling massive quantities of hair out of their ears. No thank you. We dropped her off at noon and picked this thing up at three:

It may be hard to tell from this picture, but she has little white bows in her hair above her ears. She looked miserable. Now, this little pink triangle that was around her neck is her new favorite toy. She wrestles around with it and tries to tear it apart. I think it's payback for all she had to go through.

Italian Lentil Salad

Ok, time to catch up on my Giada recipe adventures. Last Tuesday, I decided to make the Italian Lentil Salad. Obviously, it has lots of lentils in it.. So I cooked those up in a sauce pan. Then, you chop up and add all of these things:

 Back to front, left to right, grapes, hazelnuts, cucumber, scallions, bell pepper, and then the lemon you use for zest and juice. You mix all of this with some olive oil, salt and pepper, and then you serve your cold salad. Easy enough, right? I hadn't counted on this..

 Hazelnuts. Apparently, they are the biggest pain in the behind EVER. I never knew this. I saw hazelnuts in the recipe and I thought back to my fond memories of cracking hazelnuts, almonds, and whatnot and eating them from the shells. We only pulled out the nutcracker at Christmas, so I had this warm Christmasy wave of nostalgia wash over me.
I went to Trader Joe's and bought a large bag of hazelnuts, thinking of all the fun things I would do with the rest of the nuts. I only needed half a cup for this recipe. Visions of hazelnut risotto and hazelnut cookies danced in my head.
As I looked over the recipe, I noticed that these hazelnuts should be skinned, roasted and chopped coarsely. Still naive, I googled 'skinned hazelnuts' and that is where the madness started. Apparently, there are 2 ways you can skin hazelnuts. And also apparently, hazelnuts are terribly bitter if you leave the skin on. Believe me, my lazy self considered this option.
One way to skin hazelnuts involves boiling them in hot water and a few tablespoons of baking soda for a few minutes, then rinsing them individually under cold water and 'popping' the skins off. Then, since the hazelnuts have absorbed so much moisture, you put them on a pan and roast them in the oven.
The second method is to throw the skinful hazelnots on a baking sheet, roast them, and then put the hot hazelnuts between 2 towels (that you don't care about) and rub them together until the skins come off. According to my sources, this method is time consuming and less effective than the first.
I chose the second method. Laziness aside, I just couldn't quite face boiling nuts in baking soda. The picture above is the aftermath. As you can see in the first picture and the picture below, though, I think I did a fairly decent job.

So this is the finished product. I would give it a thumbs-middle. It was ok and the grapes and hazelnuts made it really interesting texturally. Bu, I kept getting bites that tasted like a mouthful of vinegar. And there was no vinegar in it! I'm thinking it might have been the scallions. Maybe if I try it again, I would use red onions instead.
Oh, and hazelnut risotto? Suddenly sounds atrocious.

Chicken Tacos

I am taking a quick break from Giada to share one of my favorite recipes. It came about through a lot of trial and error and picking bits and pieces from lot of food network shows. This is another recipe that I think Keith would have me make every day if he had his 'druthers'.

I start out boiling the chicken. I like to use bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts, because they are pretty cheap, but still only white meat. I've never been much of a dark meat fan.

 In the pan with the chicken, I add a quartered onion, a few garlic cloves, peeled and halved, a bay leaf, dried chipotle peppers (1 or 2), salt, cumin, and whatever else I happen to feel like adding. I add enough water to cover most of the chicken, bring it to a boil and then let it simmer for an hour or so.

This is what it looks like after it has simmered for awhile. At this stage, I take the pan off the heat and let it cool enough to put in the refrigerator. You can either go ahead with the chicken tacos right away, or save this little concoction in the refrigerator to make the next day, if you're planning ahead.

 When I decide I'm ready for tacos, I fish the chicken out of the broth, strain the broth and save it for soup, and shred up the chicken. In a frying pan, I sautee about half an onion in olive oil and then add the shredded chicken. To the chicken, I add some of Lawry's chicken taco seasoning. I usually use about half a packet since I am only cooking for 2. To this I add some water and let it cook for a few minutes, then I chop up about a cup of cherry or grape tomatoes and add them to the chicken mix, just cooking until they are heated through.

I couldn't figure out how to flip this picture, so you'll have to turn your head sideways for a minute. The picture below shows the real secret ingredients that help make these chicken tacos amazing. The green package is ducal refried black beans. They are from Guatemala and they are amazing. You can actually find them in the US now, at some Mexican grocery stores. Along with these beans is an avocado and some fresh cilantro from my garden. Ok, true confession- this is actually parsley, because it was what I had handy on my counter when I was snapping the picture. I would never put parsley on tacos, though. Cilantro is much better.

 We use whole wheat tortillas from Trader Joe's. Some day I might dedicate a whole section of this blog to the products I love from Trader Joe's. Keith likes crunchy shell tacos, so he usually has those. Here is the finished product:

The Christmas plate is a whole other story for another day. Looking at this picture is making me so hungry, so I had better sign off and go find something to eat. More Giada coming soon. I have already made 2 more recipes, but I need to find where I stored the photos on my computer..

Blueberry Mascarpone Turnovers

On Saturday morning, I decided to try this recipe from Giada: Blueberry and mascarpone turnovers. My life will never, ever be the same. The comment next to the date on this recipe says simply "ridiculous".

First, you mix together mascarpone cheese, sugar, cornstarch, lemon zest and lemon juice and add some blueberries. Then, you cut circles out of a piecrust. I cheated and used ready made piecrust, complements of Pillsbury.

To each circle, you add the filling, brush beaten egg around the edges and seal with a fork.

Then, you heat some oil to about 375 (this was as close as I could manage). and deep fry each turnover for 1-2 minutes.

Then, you let the turnovers drain on paper towels and sprinkle sugar on top. Arranage them nicely on a stolen IU plate that appeared among your wedding gifts (?!) and enjoy. The filling is beautifully balanced and the crust turns out flaky and delicious. Keith wants me to make them every day.

This is the one thing that I have noticed so far about the Giada recipes. The flavors are all so well balanced. I thought I cooked well before, but I can tell that I still have a lot to learn.

The Babysitter

By the way, I think I should give some props where props are due. The only way that I was able to make fish stew on a weeknight (I made it on Tuesday (?)) was because of the babysitter.

We read in our poodle handbook (from the breeder) that one chew toy that is good for puppies is pig ears. So, being the new puppy parents that we are, we went out and bought what the book said (unfortunately, we couldn't find any lamb lung..) and thusly discovered the most impressive trick in the book. Now we call these her babysitters, because she will sit and chew on these pig ears for hours and only stop when she needs to potty. So not only does she stay out of trouble, but she also gives you a very clear sign of when she needs to be taken outside.

Oh, and apparently black poodles get green eye, not red eye in photos. Who knew?

Ligurian Fish Stew

Due to several life circumstances, involving a little terror of a puppy, a sick husband, and a trip to Costa Rica, I never got around to making those apricot cookies. Instead, my first attempt at a Giada recipe was to make her Ligurian Fish Stew. Now, for those of you who know me, you will know that fish stew would be probably last on my list of things that I would ever want to make. I have never been much of a fish fan because it's, well, so fishy. And spreading that fishiness around in a stew? No thank you. But Evie e-mailed and told me that she was making this recipe and I should too. So I figured, might as well get it over with.

The stew started out pretty tame- potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, olive oil. But from there you add white wine, crushed tomatoes, red pepper flakes, white fish (I used orange roughy). Now I have never cooked with wine before and I always thought that I HATED wine in things. Just hated it. But, just like all strong, baseless convictions, this one fell apart. The wine added just the right.. something.. to balance out the fishy-ness. And the red pepper flakes made it spicy. Under the date that I wrote in the margin of the cookbook, I also added this little note: Changed my opinion of fish stew!

So, fish stew, you have my official apology. I am sorry I hated you for so long.

Giada at Home

Final decision- Giada at Home. It's her newest cookbook. Evie has decided to cook with me through the cookbook and Jen had mentioned it, but I haven't heard anything recently. (Jen?) It will be a little crazy and nontraditional, because we're all very busy this summer. For this week, though, we will be making Apricot and Nut Cookies with Amaretto Icing. I will try to post pictures before I leave for Costa Rica.

New puppy

We finally got our puppy that we have been talking about for a few years now. We ended up with a black toy poodle and she is ADORABLE. She is actually a really good puppy. She has already been potty trained to go on newspaper, so we'll just need to transition her to going outside. She plays by herself really well. She wants to chew on everything, but is pretty good about being redirected to chewing on her toys.

The only problem is that she is so dark that it's hard to take pictures of her. Sometimes, when she is lying down, I can't tell where her head is because she is just a ball of fuzz. I was ready to give her back after a night of whining, but after today I guess I'll keep her. She just follows me around and then plops down on my foot whenever I stop and then stays there until I move next. We'll see what I think tomorrow morning..

FREE!!

The absolute best thing about being a teacher is the end of May where everything you've been working on is DONE and there is nothing you are responsible for and nothing you have to do for a good 2 or 3 months. I am now in that stage. I turned in my grades, cleaned my classroom and locked the door for the last time (for this school year) yesterday. I still don't quite feel free. I still feel this awful feeling that there are papers to grade and classes to plan and things to worry about. I think it will finally sink in on Monday or Tuesday when I am still at home and watching daytime TV. For now, only my conscious brain knows that I'm free. Everything else will need to catch up.
So I am now trying to figure out what I will do with myself. I want to buy the Giada cookbook and get going with it. We're thinking about buying a puppy now that I have time to train it and can be home more so it doesn't go too crazy. I found these toy poodle puppies that are just ridiculously cute. I would never consider myself a poodle person, but we'll see. I'm also going to Costa Rica with some students in about a week and a half. Oh, and my apartment is a DISASTER since I have completely neglected it in the last few weeks.
I guess I have plenty to do.

No grill

Well, I looked into the Eating Local cookbook a little further and it turns out that about half of the recipes are done on the grill. I have no grill, nor do I have any space for one, so I'm thinking I might need to choose something else. I think I am going to go with the Giada cookbook.
I'm currently holed up with one of the worst sicknesses I've had in a long time. My doctor suspects pneumonia and it isn't treating me very nicely. Needless to say, the cookbook project is going to need to wait. If anyone has any great ideas for Spanish substitute plans, let me know.

Julie and Julia project

I have done some more thinking about what cookbook to use for my Julie and Julia project. Here are a few I am considering:

Giada at Home- California/Italian cooking. Looks like a good level of difficulty
Eating Local - about using local, farmers market, in-season ingredients
Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics- a little more challenging, but a good education
Williams-Sonoma Essentials of Latin Cooking- I am working on my abilities in this area anyway.

Any thoughts? Especially from Jen, who said you might join me. I want to make a decision and get started by the 15th.

Another new book

I started another new book this week called Son of Hamas. I found it in the Christian section of the bookstore. It is by Mosab Hassan Yousef. He is the oldest son of one of the founders of Hamas. He was being groomed to be a leader of the group, but then became a Christian and fled to America. I haven't made it very far in the book, but so far it is really interesting. It has a lot of historical background on the root of the problems in the Middle East. It's not exactly a summer novel, but it makes me feel smart.

Julie and Julia

I finally saw the movie Julie and Julia. I loved it. And it made me so inspired to cook and to try new things. So, being the lame-o, super impressionable person that I am, I want to now cook my way through a cookbook. Just like the movie. The only problem is that I don't know which one to do. And I wouldn't mind having company on my journey, if anyone is interested. The idea is to buy a new cookbook (hurray!) and then make a new recipe from it each day. Ok, maybe 5 a week would be a better goal? This is all still in the works. I'm thinking about starting in May. Here are my initial thoughts on cookbooks:
1> I want to be somewhat healthy, as in, not adding a stick of butter to each thing I make. So that rules out Paula Deen. Sorry Paula.
2> I want something that will stretch me to try new things. A little more than Betty Crocker, but not quite as difficult as Julia Child.
3> Barefoot Contessa?

I think I might need to go to Borders and look through cookbooks. Let me know if you have any suggestions and/or if you are interested in joining in the fun.

Easter

I've noticed a LOT this Easter that people on facebook have been leaving parts of hymns or worship songs as their status updates. I think the reason for this is that the message of Easter is so profound and beautiful that our own words don't seem to do it any justice. AND so many great words have already been written about it. So here is my pick for an Easter song. It is from the song 'In Christ Alone', which is one of my all-time favorites. This is just one of the verses:

There in the ground his body lay,
Light of the World by darkness slain.
Then bursting forth in glorious day,
up from the gave he rose again.
And as he stands in victory,
sin's curse has lost it's grip on me.
For I am his, and he is mine,
bought with the precious blood of Christ.

Happy Easter!

Sarah's Key

I just finished another book, Sarah's Key. It would have to be a mixed review for me. On the bright side, I couldn't put the book down. It was a quick, intense read. It is about the French police force's role in the holocaust and one specific day in July of 1942 when they rounded up many of Paris' Jewish residents and sent them off to concentration camps. Most of these Parisian Jews were sent to Auschwitz where they were killed.

The book follows 2 women- one, a present-day journalist whose assignment is to write an article for the anniversary of the Vel d' Hiv roundup. The other is a young girl, Sarah, who is torn out of her home by the french policemen, and goes through unspeakable tragedy. The storyline bounces back and forth between these two women and between their respective time periods and experiences.

Good points- very interesting, held my attention, very informative about a topic I had known nothing about

Bad points- made me cry (I hate books that do that!), somewhat depressing, and ended with an unnecessary love interest

So there you have my take on it. :) I've been reading a lot lately. I like that.

Getting things done

Ok, so now it's time for my dissertation.. which I promised to post on Monday.. about getting things done. I had a breakthrough moment on Sunday, while I was taking a walk and this is the basic gist of it.
I am tired of systems and schedules. They just don't work for me. Ever. Period. They make me annoyed at myself and the system. Just like most everyone (I think??!) there are lots of things that I feel guilty about- that I don't get enough vegetables, or exercise, or that I don't spend enough time on planning my classes, I don't read my Bible enough, I don't know my students well enough, I don't save enough money, and on and on and on. In the past, whenever I get overly annoyed with one thing or another, I sit down and I decide on how I will forever change this aspect of my life.
For instance, Sunday was a beautiful day. It made me want to go outside and walk. Then I started thinking about how little I exercise. And suddenly I had this urge to sit down and write out a detailed walking schedule for myself. And within 2 seconds of that thought, I had already given up on my theoretical schedule because I knew I wouldn't stick with it.
So then I started thinking- maybe, for me at least, it isn't about changing forever. Maybe it's about making a somewhat better choice right now, in the moment. So on Sunday, when it was nice, I chose to go for a walk. Did I accomplish the American Heart Association's recommendation of "30 minutes of moderate intensity activity five days of the week"? No. But I did one day, and that's better than nothing.
Instead of trying to find time to sit down to grade a whole week's worth of student work and tests, I will sit down and grade one or two papers while dinner is cooking, or during homeroom.
That is why I decided to do Veggie week. I am not going to try to get 3-5 servings of vegetables or whatever. Instead, I will start with one a day.
It's all about making a somewhat better choice each time I have the opportunity to do so. Maybe this is just another version of the old 'baby steps'. Maybe not. But it makes sense for me.

Veggie Week- Wednesday

Wednesday's vegetable: zucchini, tomatoes

Cooking method: stir fry

I call this my italian stir fry and it's one of the very few ways that I can get Keith to eat tomatoes. I start with a red onion, cut it in thin strips and stir fry it over a low flame with some olive oil. Then I cut up the zucchini in strips, like so:

I'm obsessed with fresh garlic at the moment, so I got some out for this dish. Check out the size of this garlic clove! I only ended up using maybe a third of it and that was PLENTY!

Anyway, when the onions got soft, I added the garlic and stirred for just a few minutes. Then I added the zucchini and let them stir fry for a little while.

While this was cooking, I started cutting the tomatoes. I use all different kinds of tomatoes, just whatever I have on hand. Today, it was

I cut them into quarters. I also cut up some fresh rosemary. As you can see, today's meal was a 2 knife ordeal.

Then I threw it all together, added some dry italian spices and a little ground pepper.

And this, my friends, turns a boring meal like tortellini..

into this..

Veggie Week- Tuesday

Tuesday's vegetable: red cabbage, carrots

Cooking method: none

I didn't have much time on Tuesday, so I opted for making coleslaw. Here are the ingredients I started with:

I cut about half of this half of a red cabbage in very thin strips. Then I peeled and grated the carrot. Then I attempted to grate the green apple. Unfortunately, grating apples only results in very chunky applesauce. So I had to resort to the knife and made very thin slices. Is this called julienne? I toasted the almonds, which were raw when started. I threw it all together, added some craisins, and here was the result:

Delicious!

Veggie Week- Monday

Monday's vegetable: Acorn Squash

Cooking Method: baking

First, I washed the acorn squash and cut it in half. Then, I scooped out the seeds with a large spoon.
Next, I put the halves in a bread pan with an inch or less of water. I always poke vent holes in the top like you would with a baked potato. I don't know why I do this..
Then I baked for 45+ minutes in a 375 degree oven. It might have been a little too long.

Today I ate the squash just plain. Usually I add brown sugar, but my stomach decided it was a good day for bland food.

I hope that this is as uninspired as my posts will get and that hopefully they will be uphill from here. :) We'll see.

Veggie week- Sunday

I am planning on writing a dissertation tomorrow on my new philosophy of life and getting things done. Reflect with me for a minute on the irony of that statement... As you can tell, from this post and others, getting things done has always been a struggle for me. More on this tomorrow.

Anyway, one thing that I have decided to do, in order to both incorporate more vegetables in my diet and post more on my blog, is to have a veggie week on my blog. Here is the idea- each day I have to make one vegetable dish to go along with dinner (quit judging me!) and I am going to post how I made it on my blog. Hopefully this way I will keep myself accountable to both things.

Sunday's vegetable: asparagus

Cooking method: roasting

First, I broke the ends off of the asparagus and rinsed the good end (that's the knobby, pointy one) in a colander. Then, I drizzled the asparagus with olive oil.

I know some people add the olive oil when the asparagus is in the pan. I prefer this way, because then the excess oil can drip off.

Next, I add salt and freshly ground black pepper.Grinding pepper with one hand is not for the faint hearted.

Next, I made a little rectangle out of aluminum foil, which I put on a cookie sheet. I do this because my cookie sheet doesn't have a lip and I don't want juices to run all over my oven. Come to think of it, there actually aren't any juices, so I'm not sure why I do it..

Then, you pop these babies into a 345 degree oven for 10-15 minutes and you're good to go!

My pork has been split down the middle because I am paranoid about raw meat and I have to SEE the middle to believe that it's done.

So this is Veggie week. And I invite you to join me, either by having a veggie week on YOUR blog, or by commenting to each post with your own vegetable adventures. Watch out vegetables! Your days are numbered.

Typical Thursday night

I should be grading my large pile of tests.
Instead I am updating my blog.
I should be planning tomorrow's classes.
Instead I am catching up on thepioneerwoman.com.
I should be updating grades online.
Instead I am allowing myself to get sucked into an argument about the philosophy of sports on Google Buzz.
I should be brushing my teeth and going to bed.
Instead I am drinking peppermint tea with honey.

In the time of the butterflies

Since my last post mentioned a movie that wasn't really worth watching, I figured I owe it to everyone to recommend a movie that is. I stumbled a cross this movie a few days ago on hulu.com and it was really phenomenal. The good thing about it being on hulu is that you can watch the whole thing for free on your computer.

The movie 'In the time of the butterflies' is a movie about 4 sisters who lived during the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic. They are the Mirabal sisters, who formed part of the resistance movement against the regime.

What I liked about the movie was that it didn't show any excessive sex or violence or contain much bad language. Even though it is about violent, sad times, it portrays it in a way that even my weak stomach can handle. And, it was fairly educational. I didn't know anything about the Trujillo dictatorship before I watched this movie, and now I have at least a sense of what it was about and why people were fleeing their country during that time. It's also an inspiring movie. It makes you want to go out and change the world. Watch at your own risk!

Here is the link to hulu. If you watch it, let me know what you think!
http://www.hulu.com/watch/34568/in-the-time-of-the-butterflies

Brisket part 2

The brisket, mentioned a week or so ago, turned out beautifully! The flavor was perfect and the meat was tender and well done. My husband even forced me to sit down THAT NIGHT and write down every step of the process in my cookbook so that I could replicate it next time. Now that's a compliment!

I have no pictures of any of it because we ate it too quickly. Next time I make it, I'll be sure to snap a picture of each stage and the finished product.

On a side note- did you know that using your crockpot is one of the most energy efficient ways of cooking? Go green and make brisket! Do it. Do it. (Starsky and Hutch- if you haven't seen it, don't. It really isn't worth it)

Big words

One thing that is funnier than anything else to me is when people try to use big words to sound impressive, and then choose the wrong big word. Take, for instance, this sentence. I found it on a comment page, after the article 'Why does the West love the Dalai Lama?' on the BBC website. The angry commentor summons all of their big words, and throws them into an impressive 53 word sentence.

"The Dalai Lama is essentially a dictator who uses religion as a front in his quest to reinstate a system whereby the vast majority of people live in abstract poverty and are forced to give most of what little they have to the monasteries and monks who rule through religious indoctrination and violence."

Well, that sounds terrible! And it makes all those people live in abstract poverty! Unfortunately, that one misused word makes me immediately discount all of his other words. What a sad waste of a 'whereby'.

Ok, now I will reread this post a few hundred times to make sure I said everything correctly..

Brisket part 1

One great memory I have from college involves a certain brisket made by my best friend's mom. At certain InterVarsity functions, she would come and cook for the group and make this brisket. It was amazing. Melt-in-your-mouth beef. Since I have gotten married, I have always looked longingly at the brisket at the grocery store, but have never been brave enough to try it myself.
Until now. It helped that the meat was on super-sale, so at least if I ruin it completely I won't feel too bad about throwing away my money.
Being the foresightful planner I am, I shot an e-mail off last night to both Kristina and Jen, demanding their mother's recipe. I told them I needed the recipe by this morning, or else. Needless to say, there was no recipe in my inbox this morning. So I threw some random things in the crockpot and we'll see. I decided I should write this down so that in case it should turn out well, I would be able to replicate it. And, I guess, in case it turns out terribly, I'll know what to avoid.
On the bottom of the crockpot:
2 onions, quartered
1 celery stalk, cut into 1 inch pieces.
2 cloves of garlic, rough chopped
2 dried chipotle peppers
1 bay leaf

On the meat:
fresh ground pepper
ground cumin
onion powder
garlic powder

Poured over all:
3/4 cup of liquid that included
Soy sauce
worcestershire sauce
beef boulion
hot water
juice of 1 lime
1/2 tsp salt

I seared the brisket before I thought of the little spice rub, so I put those dry spices on AFTER it was seared. I think if I did it again, I would do that before I seared it, possibly even overnight.
I'll let you know how it goes.

The ANSWER

For those of you who know me well, you know that caffeine and I don't get along. Like, at all. My latest post was about coffee. Well, I have now drunk (drank? drinked?) half a cup of my concoction, which was about 40% coffee and 60% milk and caramel, and I already feel jittery and just a teency bit nauseous.
I have had just about enough of this caffeine reaction business. I want to be able to drink coffee whenever I feel like it! I want to drink black tea at night! Come on! So I went online to do some research about caffeine. I just knew that there had to be something that would counteract the effects of caffeine and make my life a little easier. Guess what? THERE IS!!
Let me quote, from Prevention Magazine's website:

"Tobacco
Smoking can increase caffeine metabolism, decreasing effectiveness. Smokers who use caffeine-containing.. products may require higher amounts of caffeine to achieve effectiveness."

Well, I trust Prevention's advice. I will start smoking posthaste.

Shhhh

I don't even know if I'm allowed to write about this on this blog. The tea might get jealous. But, I'm making coffee (stage whisper) this morning. Not just any old coffee. This is the gourmet, amazing stuff. I have been looking forward to this coffee for a few weeks now, but the perfect day to make it never presented itself. Today, however, the second snow day in a row, is finally the perfect day. I have time. It's not too late in the day for caffeine. AND I have some chocolate chip banana bread that I made yesterday. So here is the plan:

In the coffee filter:
Cafe Leon, imported by my own hands from Guatemala.
Broken up cinnamon sticks

To sweeten and soften:
milk
dulce de leche (basically, caramel)

I got this idea from the pioneer woman here: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/01/dulce-de-leche-coffee/

I wish I had my camera with me, but alas, it's at school and there are mountains and mountains of snow between here and there. Ok, maybe not. Maybe we only got about 4 inches. So you'll just have to imagine. And I will have to go curl up with my new amazing book and drink my amazing coffee and be so thankful that I'm not at school trying to cram the love of Spanish into teenagers' heads.

New book

I went to Borders and bought a book today with a gift certificate I had gotten for Christmas. I had read about this book somewhere, and then saw that the book club at school is reading it now. So that sealed the deal. The book is The Help by Kathryn Stockett. The librarian at school told me that it would really open my eyes to the realities of slavery and racism in the South. Sounds rough, but I'm up for it.

Another thing that contributed to me picking up this book is that it is a New York Times Bestseller. My mom says that if you want to be a bestselling author, you should read bestselling books. Sounds like wise advice. I don't know that I'll ever be an author, but if I am, then I am determined to be a bestselling one.

House

Lately I've been getting a hankering to get my own house. I don't know if it's the terrible windows of my apartment that ice over.. on the INSIDE.. in winter, or maybe the feeling of wanting to hunker down and hibernate from the cold, or maybe the long trek through the snow to the laundry building, or, most likely, from hours and hours of watching HGTV.
As I think about buying a house, here are the things that would be dealbreakers for me:

1> Laundry. In the house. Sounds like a miracle. Although then I might have to start thinking about getting my exercise elsewhere.
2> Gas stove. Preferably a dark blue Viking. What? They cost 8,000 dollars? Surely the previous homeowner will leave one behind..
3> A guest room.
4> At least 2 bathrooms.
5> A little bit of yard so I can play gardener.

I think those are enough dealbreakers. Things I would like besides that:
1> A big kitchen with enough storage space. Ooh, and a pantry.
2> A non-carpeted entrance so you have a place to take off wet and snowy shoes.
3> A fireplace.
4> A separate dining room. I think I've had enough of multi-purpose rooms.

And, I have to confess, one of my favorite things in the world (of houses) is when upstairs rooms have irregular ceiling lines, like a sloping ceiling with a window jutting out of it.
We'll see. For now, I have decided to just be content that I am warm and out of the snow and slush. Incidently, there is a lot of snow in the forecast for Monday and possibly Tuesday. Do I see a snow day or two in my future??

Rice Pudding

I was trying to decide what to eat for breakfast today when I saw a box of arborio rice on my counter, still there from making risotto awhile ago. So I decided to make some rice pudding. It turned out beautifully, so I thought I would share my secrets. Here are the ingredients I started with:
1/2 cup arborio rice

1 cup milk (but you'll need more)

1 cinnamon stick

1 TBSP sugar

pinch of ground cloves

Put this all in a small saucepan over medium heat. You need to stir frequently. Once the milk is about to boil, turn the heat down to low.

Keep adding milk, so that it never gets drier than the picture above. You have to keep stirring too. After 15-20 minutes, taste the rice and see if it is soft enough. At the end, I added in a pinch of salt to balance out the sweetness. You could probably add vanilla too, I just didn't think of it.
Here's what the finished product looked like:

I added in blueberries and slivered almonds.

And it was amazing. You might think that cinnamon and blueberries don't really go together. But then you'd be wrong.

A little quote from Seinfeld: 'Anytime anyone says, "Oh This is so good. What's in it?" The answer invariably comes back, Cinnamon. Cinnamon. Again and again.'

Decided.. again

Keith and I have firmly decided on the kind of puppy we want to get. We do this often. First, we definitely decided we wanted a miniature pinscher like his parents have. Then Keith decided that we needed to have an italian greyhound. I was a little iffy on that. They're so skinny and they kind of creep me out. So I decided that we had to have a boston terrier. Have you ever seen them? Adorable! A few weeks ago, we were back to the min pin.
But now we have decided, once and for all, that our puppy of choice will be a shar-pei. Watch this and you'll understand:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwTqh6RN9Xg

Lentil soup

I made some lentil soup today. Here's how it went:

1> Cut up onion, celery, carrots and garlic and sautee in some olive oil.

2> Add in some chicken stock (vegetable, if you are a vegetarian). I would add this whole carton.

Just look at this swirlin' goodness.

3> Go through the lentils, pick out any little rocks or wierd lookin' lentils.
Rocks and wierds are top right. Bottom left is a little fish. Yes, this is supposed to be my fish cutting board. I don't cook much fish.

Quick side note about lentils- today I used just the regular old greeny-greyish lentils. They're pretty good. The best lentils for soup, in my opinion, are the little red ones.

4> Rinse lentils in water. Pour off the water, including anything that floats.

5> Add lentils into the stock and vegetable mix.

6> Flavorings- a bay leaf, ground coriander, ground cumin, juice of 1/2 a lemon.

Bring to a boil, then simmer for 30-40 minutes.

Finished product:

This bready goodness on the side is some italian bread, spread with olive oil, sprinkled with garlic salt, italian spices, and parmesan cheese, and put under the broiler for a few minutes. Try it. You'll never be the same.

Deditos

Here is a great classroom activity. It is perfect for those days when you realize that you still have 15 minutes of class left and absolutely nothing to fill them with.

Now, before you start judging me about not having adequate lesson plans, let me just remind you that our class periods are an hour and a half long. It's pretty hard to plan a cohesive class that will run that long. Some days you run out of time, some days you run out of material. This was one of the latter. Here is what you do on those kinds of days

1. Announce to the class that they need to go sit next to someone who they feel comfortable with. The more awkward you are about this announcement, the more they worry about what may be coming next. I am not opposed to a little worry now and then. It keeps them on their toes.

2. Tell them that they need to write a letter on each finger. Yes, one letter per finger. No, it does not need to spell anything. No, you cannot use pencil. You aren't allowed to write on your hands because you are a cheerleader? Then please write 10 letters on a piece of paper, rip them off, and tape them onto your fingers. No, numbers are not considered letters. (?!)

3. Now, they need to look at all 20 letters and try to come up with Spanish words that they can spell by putting their fingers together.

4. The teacher will come around with a digital camera and capture the words they have come up with. Thankfully, I had my camera with me that day!

Here is the outcome:

Lovely chipped nailpolish. This is actually a new word that a lot of them have learned this year. Algo= something. One of my goals this year (Spanish 2 honors) is to teach them circumlocution words, like place, thing, something, someone, etc. Little did these girls know that I would be so proud that they thought of this word!

Secarse= to dry oneself. When anyone would really need this word to survive in another country is beyond me. But we were learning reflexive verbs, so what can you do?Luego= later.

Noviembre= November. Believe it or not. What I don't think I believe is that these were actually the letters they had originally written on their fingers. That M looks an awful lot like it used to be a T.

Fea- ugly (feminine). Hopefully they weren't inspired by their teacher..

Cheerleader!!!! Boda= wedding.