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.

Cheesecake part 2

If you want to see a picture of my finished cheesecake, you can see it here:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=i6pyzsw.1z8rdsgk&x=0&h=1&y=g8e2s4&localeid=en_US

Sorry I can't upload the picture. I'm still working on my computer literacy.
The cheesecake is on my mother-in-law's beautiful Christmas table, so if you need any table setting ideas, you should definitely ask her. And not me.
The cheesecake turned out beautifully. It was probably the best cheesecake I have ever eaten. The topping is just strawberries, blueberries and raspberries in 1/3 cup of warmed red jelly.

Second snow day

So I got a call last night from my school's AlertNow system saying that school was cancelled again for today. It was kind of exciting, but also kind of not. I can handle school now!! Couldn't these snow days wait until the beginning of March when school seems endless and horrible?

But who am I to complain about days off?

AND, I was supposed to stay late today (9 or so) to chaperone some boys' basketball games. I was DREADING it. And guess what? Cancelled! I wonder if they'll reschedule, or if I'll be off the hook altogether.

So, what to do today? I could do some lesson plans (snicker, snicker). But instead, I decided to pull myself together and get out of the house. As I was putting on my socks, I noticed this:

It's just big enough to be able to see my manicure, and just small enough so you can't tell that the manicure is from October.

So I decided to be proactive and darn my sock. We are in a recession, afterall. You can't just go out and buy new socks!

Yes, I darned it on my foot. I decided that this is the reason why we have toenails. Sort of a built-in thimble for your big toe for when you darn your socks.

Done! See how happy my toes are? So darned happy.
This next picture is to make all of you dancers jealous.

My dad told me once that I was not allowed to say 'darn' unless I was talking about socks. I stick to this rule religiously, which is why I tried to use it as much as possible in this post. I think that last use of it was stretching it just a little.

Snow Day

First snow day of the year!! It's a little sad, because I wasn't NEEDING a break yet, but I'm not complaining. I told myself that I was going to work hard today and make LOTs of lesson plans.

Here is what I have accomplished so far:
*Slept in (until 7:30!)
*Watched a lot of TV
*Ironed a dress shirt for Keith. I would have done more, but there weren't any more that were clean. Yikes.
*Cleaned my kitchen thoroughly and washed all the dishes. It hasn't looked this good in a long time.
*Drank 3 cups of jasmine green tea
*Drank 1 cup of Pacific Chai tea latte.
*Cleaned the toilet.

No lesson plans. I haven't even thought about lesson plans. I used to get really upset that I could never accomplish what I set out to do. But now I've decided to be proud of the extra stuff I do to avoid doing what I need to do. It works in a back-handed sort of way. I think I have a little too much caffeine in my system now. We'll see if that helps or hinders.