Unmitigated

Brightening My Days

Still unemployed by choice. Still working on projects. I have been doing some more cooking, with recipes from all the Marias out there. I have branched out into baking, of a sort. I found an easy, no-knead bread recipe on Mother Earth News (someone linked there...Jan/Maria?), and a fruit galette that I made with blueberries and raspberries from Three Many Cooks.

The bread was awesome, and calmed my bread-making fears. Its easy to screw up bread. Then I remembered...I have a bread machine! Remember when everyone had a bread machine? Back in the 80s or early 90s. So far, I have made a french honey bread, that I used blueberry honey in, and a traditional Italian bread. Next, I am thinking of some Hawaiian sweet bread, or some beer bread. 

Before I talk about the next two-and-a-half projects, I wanted to point out that my wonderful husband, who goes by the name JimStyro, has posted again on his blog, Speaking in CAPS! It's been a very long time. Pop over if you get a chance, you will see an awesome picture from Ms. Partly Cloudy's wedding. Also posting recently after a long absence is Captain Dumbass. You won't believe how much Mickey Finn has grown. Protect your iPods.

OKay...next project: We use Microsoft Money to keep track of finances, which means that we have receipts to enter in a piece of software. We generate, on average 2-3 receipts per day. No big deal, right? What if the primary enterer hasn't had the time or the inclination to enter data in awhile....like, since May of 2011? View my Purgatory:

That there is over 200 receipts that need to be entered.The first step in getting our finances organized, and my project for the rest of today, and probably part of tomorrow. Yesterday, I alphabetized them, as I prefer to enter all the receipts from a single vendor at once. The biggest pile? Quiznos, where JimStyro eats lunch nearly every day. 

Once that is accomplished, I move on to the junk drawer. Drawers. Just in the living room and kitchen, there are EIGHT junk drawers. Eight. In the basement, there are three storage areas that are disastrous, and I'm not even going to talk about the garage, which will need to wait until it is warmer outside before I can attack. I want a dedicated space for my yoga practice, and a space where I can work on stained glass projects. The living room over carpet is NOT a good place to cut glass.

If I don't emerge from Microsoft Money by Saturday....send the Marines.

Mary & the Marias

In order to rip-off the alliterative title of Julie & Julia, I have had to change the names of my two unwitting cooking teachers from Gretchen and Jan to Maria and Maria. 

Big life changes going on here, one of which includes me learning to cook. I know.

Here's what I have done so far, with results:

Recipe from Maria (Gretchen): Chicken Piccata

Results: This was awesome! I used capers! And garnished with parsley! I didn't have any white wine, so I used cooking sherry, which didn't counteract the lemon as much as the wine would have, I think. Next time I will cook the chicken just a few minutes longer. It was cooked through, but I would have like just a touch more browning on the outside. I added some mashed, Yukon Gold potatoes, and some corn, which were both very good, but not very colorful. Maybe green beans or broccoli, to go with the rich yellow of the lemon slices.

Next up: Maria's (Gretchen's) tomato sauce. Many of Gretchen's recipe look amazing, but she mostly seems to publish the extraordinary ones, and I am not an extraordinary cook or eater.

Recipe from Maria (Jan): Chicken and Dumplings Yes. It's a Real SAD recipe, but I LOVE chicken and dumplings, and have only ONCE pulled off the recipe I got from the Bisquick box, which is what my mom always used. 

Results: Amazing! I actually got the liquid to thicken, and it tasted just like I remember. It has emboldened me in the kitchen. Next time, I might try Maria's (Jan's) recipe, but use bisquick for the dumplings instead of the bisuits in the roll.

Recipe from Maria (Jan): Beef Stroganoff Another Real SAD recipe, but I have never made this and always wanted. 

Results: Pretty good. I didn't wait long enough to let the liquid evaporate. I ended up having to take the meat back out to thicken the sauce, which worked, but the meat ended up a bit overcooked. Lesson learned? Patience.

Recipe from Maria (Jan): Quiche Lorraine Eek! Another SAD recipe, but feeling bold, I changed the heavy cream and half-and-half to 2% milk, and the bacon to broccoli and onions. So, not quite as SAD as the original, plus I figured out how to make some acceptable substitutions.

Next up: Maria's (Jan's) Italian Style Meatloaf  and Beef and Green Bean Casserole.

Pitchforks and Antennae

I like fruit. Almost all kinds of fruit. I like fruit better than I like candy, how awesome is that? 

One of my favorite ways to eat fruit is to freeze some grapes. They turn into grape-sicles, which are tremendously popular here among the hot-flashing set. They are also good to eat when you have sore, scratchy ears and throat that you feel are the likely prelude to a week of feeling like utter crap. So I had some frozen grapes last night before bed.

This morning, when I was loading the dishwasher, I noticed there were little icons on the bottom of the Glad container I had the grapes in.

Do you KNOW how hard it is to get a clear picture of icons that are embossed on the surface of number 5 plastic? Fourteen pictures and two people hard, that's how hard! 

Anyway, if you tilt your computer screen just right, you will see the four icons. The first one, on the left, is obviously, proclaiming that this container can be used in the microwave. Don't kid yourself. Petro-chemicals and microwaves are never a good mix.  The second icon took me a little while. It shows a cylindrical container and a fork in what appears to be rain. I'm pretty sure it means "dishwasher-safe." On to number three, a snowflake, I assume means it can go in the freezer. Number four?

 

Or is it number four this way?

Let's just say number four is giving me some trouble. I see a pitchfork next to an old TV with a set of rabbit ear antennae. Yes, I am using the scientific plural. "Back off, man. I'm a scientist."

What do you think it means?

Random Tuesday Thoughts:The Unfinished Symphony

 

Welcome to Random Tuesday Thoughts as hosted by the lovely Keely at The UnMom.

• I had quite a long list of things to accomplish on Monday, and this post here? Is the only thing I managed. from that list. Although I did get some other stuff done, including shopping and cooking.
• This is for Jess: 

•  Dinner Monday night was chicken and cheese tortellini casserole, with cranberry orange cake for dessert. Cream cheese frosting on that. I know, I don't believe it either.
• This one is for Cap'n Dumbass: 
  That's right...a LEGO minivan.
•  Husband Styro and I volunteered to be in a musical play for Christmas. What the hell was I thinking? Play practice with a bunch of ten-year-olds is totally kicking my ass. 
• Sunday - practice 3-6
• Monday - practice 7-9
• Tuesday - practice 7-9
• Wednesday - practice 7-9
• Thursday - Wings game with younger sister and her husband for FREE!
• Friday - call time 6.
• Saturday - call time 6
• Sunday - call time sometime in the afternoon, which I am too lazy to look for right now.
• I'm too sleepy to tell you about dinner on Friday with the Literal family. Soon, I promise.

Hangin' With the Elementary and Preschool Crowd

It seemed as though this past holiday was all about hanging out with kids. My sister-in-law has two gorgeous girls, ages 6 and 4, who were less impressed by me than they were with Husband Styro and 18-year-old-Boy, both of whom provided hours of entertainment via tickling, hide-and-seek, and wrestling. 

 

At one point, I was playing a board game with the four-year-old and she suggested that 18-year-old-Boy could play next game. Silly me, I didn't realize she wanted to watch him play against ME. I should have known better than to play Guess Who against lawyer-boy. I asked if his person had gray hair. He and the four-year-old decided that the answer was "no," because it was actually WHITE hair with gray highlights.

 
Hint: Never play this game with a lawyer.

 At one point on Thursday, the girls decided to play a game with Uncle Jim they called, "Mr. Baldy" which consisted mostly of patting his bald head and chanting, "Mr. Baldy! Mr. Baldy!"

They were happily occupied during the dinner prep, which on Thanksgiving, can take most of the day, and requires fortification.

It was early. The liquor came out later.  

We had to wait HOURS to dig into this baby. 

Tomorrow, I'll tell you all about our dinner with the Literal Family from Friday night. Even more adorable children were involved.