GAH!

After I posted the last entry, I noticed that I had only uploaded photos from my dSLR and I had some pretty good photos that needed to be uploaded from the Sony point and shoot.

The first step in any photo endeavor is to delete the crap photos, and then to scale the images to a smaller size for internet viewing. I decided it was going to be easier to scale then delete since most of the photos were good enough for posting (there were maybe about 10 that weren't going to make to to the album).

Because I didn't remember how we batch processed the photos, I thought I was supposed to use the "convert image" option under the file viewer. So that's what I did. And then my computer froze. So I killed it. Which effectively corrupted 30 of my 80 photos. It did not corrupt the 10 photos that were so bad they wouldn't have made it to my online album, because OF COURSE NOT.

Instead I lost some really good photos of my parents, and of Shawn and me (and our vacation photos are sorely lacking any photos of the two of us together), and of Shawn's immediate family at the wedding. Somehow all the photos of extended family at the wedding (except like one or two) managed to not get corrupted.

Still, I'm pissed. There was this really awesome photo that my dad insisted we do at Princeton--there's an Art in Public Places thing where it's basically a large cone, balanced on the point. So I got up on large flat part and then acted like I was balancing the cone. It was a really good photo, and now it's gone. BOO! as well as the good photo of Shawn and me at the wedding. At least there is still some proof of that since I had individually shrunk that photo to put on my mom's Facebook page. Apparently I need to go steal it back. Again, I state: BOO.

East Coast Vacation

Pictures!! I haven't gone through Shawn's photos...don't know if I will. His photos, his problem. :)

I also haven't uploaded photos from the wedding. Don't know when I'll work on it, so if you really really want to see people somewhat related to me, then just keep checking back at the album periodically.

East Coast Vacation

Riding, Riding, Riding...all the way to Crown Donut Shop

After taking a breather for two weeks (because of my knee), we were out in full force this weekend. Okay, so really only a ride to the grocery store on Saturday, and a ride to Crown Donuts for breakfast this morning. Too bad Shawn isn't participating in this bike ride thing. He gets all competitive and has taken it much more personally than I have that our team is losing by 100 trips. As our Team Leader said, "every person on the team needs to do 10 trips just to catch up to the other team." A trip is either 1 recreational ride (no matter the distance), or one way to work, or one way back from work, or one way for an errand, or one way back. Thus it makes the most sense (bang for your buck so to speak) to run errands, or bike to work. This is why I have been riding my bike to the grocery store.

So, right. Today's ride.

Because Shawn feels it's a pain to get the bikes out just to ride the less than half a mile to TJ's, I suggested that maybe we go try the place over at Anderson Mill Road and Pecan Park. It's about a mile and a half away, and we'd never eat there otherwise. So at 9 am this morning (when it was only 75 degrees out. I know!), we rode off to Crown Donuts.

The inside reminds me of the Dunkin' Donuts in Glenwood Springs. Only yellow instead of orange.

Crown serves a variety of kolaches, croissants, and donuts. I had a sausage and cheese kolache, a sugar covered cake donut, and a chocolate glazed raised donut. Shawn had a sausage croissant kolache, and a filled long john.

The kolaches are more expensive than TJ's (by about $0.40), but the donuts are cheaper (by about $0.20), so all in all we spent about the same amount of money...actually less because we got a bunch of donuts instead of our normal bunch of kolaches. Crown does have a beef kolache (which TJ's doesn't), but they don't have any fruit kolaches.

The kolache I had tasted very similar to TJ's, but just didn't seem like it didn't have enough cheese, and that it wasn't fully cooked--the bread around the sausage was doughier than I like. Shawn said that the croissant kolache was good, but still said it was on par with TJ's kolaches. Winner: TJ's.

The cake donut was very good. It was moist, it tasted wonderful, and it didn't fall apart when I bit into it. As I said, the donuts at Crown are cheaper than at TJ's, and it seems that they have perfected their recipe for the cake donuts. Winner: Crown.

The raised donut was very airy. VERY airy. I'd start to bite into it, and it would depress by about half before my teeth actually cut into it. The actual donut part was good, I didn't care for the chocolate frosting (but I normally can't bring myself to order a plain glazed donut because I find them un-appetizing...unless I'm ordering for work). The glazed donut had just been put out so it was ultra fresh. Winner: Tie.

Based on the fact that when Shawn ordered a long john, and the lady asked if he wanted it cream filled, he said yes, and she went running to the back carrying the donut. About 30 seconds later she came back with the donut. I can only take this to mean that they fill the long johns to order. And there was a bunch of cream in that thing. Plus it was the eclair type cream (which I don't care for--i always preferred the frosting filled long johns), which was good for Shawn since he likes that stuff. I've always been surprised that he can eat eclair cream after watching Van Wilder. But anyhow, since he's never had the long johns at TJ's, they obviously can't be compared. He did say, however, that Crown's long johns are good and he'd order them again if we went back. Winner: Wash.

So there you have it. Normal and fruit kolaches from TJ's, Croissant kolaches from Crown (based on the fact that TJ's doesn't make croissant kolaches), and cake donuts from Crown. I think next time I bring donuts to work I may get a dozen kolaches from TJs, and a dozen donuts from Crown.

Crown Donuts is located in the small strip mall at Anderson Mill Road at Pecan Park, it is located in the middle of the center, half way between Mesa Rosa and Emler Swim School.

Fantasy Football

As I've mentioned before, I am partaking in the Work League Fantasy Football game this year. It's really only because they needed an even number of people and already had 9 so they needed someone to agree to give $20 for a chance to win much more than that. They asked me because I know nothing about football and therefore am an easy mark.

So, after the draft last night, here is my team (including bench players):
Kurt Warner (QB)
David Garrard (QB)
Larry Fitzgerald (WR)
Santana Moss (WR)
Lance Moore (WR)
Donald Driver (WR)
Cedric Benson (RB)
Reggie Bush (RB)
Jamal Lewis (RB)
Kellen Winslow (TE)
Tony Scheffler (TE)
Josh Brown (K)
Tampa Bay (DEF)
Arizona (DEF)
Terrence McGee (CB)
Quintin Demps (S)

So...seeing as how I've only ever heard of 5 of these people (and 2 of those are the actual TEAMS), I'm not sure how this will go.

Stupid Cat

The stupid cat stayed outside the other night. By blatantly running away from us when called. Stupid cats and their not coming when called.

Anyhoo, he came back the next morning sans collar. Sigh...This is why cats cost $10k over their lives.

Bah, Humbug!

So some people get all pissed off in the winter when it just seems like it will never end. But here in Austin, we're all getting pissed off because it just won't cool down. EVER. 51 days of 100+ in Downtown Austin this summer. 51, people!

Riding, Riding, Riding...

On Sunday, before I went and gashed up my knee, I went for a bike ride. Odd, I've hung out with so many people who have gone and gotten totally effed up from riding bikes, I somehow just always assumed that if I ever got messed up it would be because I was doing something on a bike (most likely trying to keep up when I'm obviously inept).

[Aside] Have you ever tried to keep your leg straight--like no bending of your knee? because let me tell you, it is fricking tough. For example, right now I'm contorted in some weird position where my right leg is resting on the other office chair, but it makes it so I'm turned at a 90 degree angle from the computer. Sucktackular. However, the cut is looking fabulous and hopefully I won't have any problems with it getting infected or anything. [/Aside]

So anyhow, I got up all bright and early (aka 9 am) and set off on a bike ride. To the bank, then to the grocery store, then to TJ's to get some kolaches and finally back home. I also found out that only the new buildings in Austin City Limits have bike racks (the bank is a new building, but it is on the far side of 620, thus putting it firmly in Cedar Park land, and apparently they don't have rules like the COA does requiring the installation of bike racks). So I rode from the house to the bank and brought the bike into the bank with me. I then off-roaded it to the grocery store to pick up my prescription. As I was riding home, I decided to make a side trip to TJ's for some kolaches since we hadn't eaten breakfast yet. Yes, I can barely control where the bike goes when I'm using both hands, so let's see how I do while carrying a doggybag of food.

Now then, as I joked about earlier, I have decided that I will write a pseudo review much like the Caffienated Wheelmen. But because I dislike coffee, I must find something else to review at the various shops I stop at.

So, I will review the food at TJ's Donuts and Kolaches.

TJ's went into the strip mall by our house maybe a year or two ago. Since I had just had my first run-in with kolaches shortly before, I figured "what the hell, let's get some kolaches" And thus started my love affair with TJ's.

TJ's meat kolaches are always served warm, and while they don't have many flavors (sausage, sausage and cheese, sausage/jalapeno/cheese, and ham & cheese), the flavors sure are good. The kolaches range from $0.89 to $1.09. They also have a wide selection of fruit kolaches that cost $0.79 each.

I, on occasion, bring these kolaches to work where they are snapped up very quickly by my co-workers, thus also attesting to the greatness of this place (and while my coworkers will eat a bunch of stuff that I normally wouldn't, you can always tell how good something is by how quickly it disappears from the break room). I have noticed that the longest lasting kolaches are always the blueberry ones, but that may just be because the filling doesn't look very appetizing (of course I don't think the cream cheese filling looks very appetizing either, but those always disappear almost as quickly as the meat kolaches).

I have, recently, also eaten some donuts from the shop, and while they do have cake donuts (for whatever reason the stores down here do not sell cake donuts), they just aren't as good as the cake donuts I had growing up. The bear claws and apple fritters, however, are very good. I don't think I've had raised donuts, the breakfast tacos, nor the filled long johns from the store yet, and I probably never will because if you have the choice of kolache, why would you go with donut?

As far as I can tell, TJ's is a mom and pop business, and the high school aged kids work on the weekends. The best part about this shop is that it is open at like 5 am. Okay, I don't really know when it opens, but I do know it opens much earlier than the other kolache shops around and it ALWAYS has someone else in there buying some kolaches/donuts. The only other place I've seen this busy in that strip mall is the Dairy Queen.

The funniest part about TJ's is that the family that owns it is of Asian descent. As one of my coworkers always jokes while he's eating a kolache, "He must be one of those Czech Asians because these things are GOOD."

So, if you're ever in the 183/620 area, look up TJ's Donuts and Kolaches. They are located on the southwest corner of 620 at Lake Creek (in the Papa Murphy's/Dairy Queen/Subway shopping center).

Tina's First Big Boo-Boo

Since I'm out of work-appropriate clothes to wear, I did some laundry last night and transferred it to the dryer right before bed.

Today I decided to transfer the laundry from the dryer to the clothes basket for folding.

For whatever reason, Shawn parked my car very close to the house while pulling into the garage last night, and of course there's always the gathering spot for all sorts of extra crap (cat litter, charcoal, car oil, windshield fluid, etc.), which happens to be at the front of the garage right between the two cars, and then there's Shawn's car, which is always parked close to the front of the garage on account of it being a truck with a full sized bed (I know, it's a bit odd thinking of the Rabbit Pickup as having a full sized truck bed, but it does). And I have to go through all this to get to the washer and dryer.

As I start working my way around the front of the truck, I hit my knee on the license plate and think to myself, "oh shit, that hurt, I hope I didn't cut myself" and then get to the washer and dryer before I look at my knee (not that I could have really looked at it before).

And this is the part where I start to hyperventilate. Because my knee is sliced open. Pretty deeply, too. Probably only an 1/8 of an inch or so, but I'm a girl, who, while being fairly tomboyish, never had any major wounds. In fact, I think the biggest 'wound' I ever had was a toenail that, after dropping a cabinet door on it, turned black and fell off.

So back to my gaping wound. It's not bleeding much, but I can definitely tell that it is deep, so I slap a hand over the wound (even though it's been about a minute from when I sliced it, and it's not bleeding), and start hobbling back into the house, having to go back around the license plate of death, the cat litter, the charcoal, the motor oil and washer fluid, and finally skirting around my car before getting to the door, which I open, and then gimp my way to the bathroom. I then have to finagle my way to sit with my knee under the tap so I can start rinsing.

It's at this point that I yell to Shawn, who is sitting in the study, as to whether or not I need to go to the hospital to get a tetanus shot if I had my last one 3 years ago, but I sliced my knee open on his license plate.

He meanders down to the bathroom, takes a look at my knee in the mirror and says "wow, that's deep. If you go to the doctor they'd definitely stitch that one up. Not that I would go to the doctor if it was me. I mean, I've had worse and I didn't go to the doctor. They're all stitch happy there."

By this point, I start looking at the cut and start feeling a wee bit woozy. So I ask Shawn to go get some gauze as I sit on the toilet, trying to keep the affected knee straight (to keep the wound closed), while also keeping my head as close to the ground as possible.

What seems like 5 minutes later I yell to Shawn about the gauze that he was supposed to have been pulling from the first aid kit, which is in the closet in the study, on the ground, next to my wedding dress, which doesn't take any time to find, why am I the only one that knows where anything is in this house? GAH! So he comes back into the bathroom with a little gauze bandage from our first aid kit, and starts laughing at me being almost passed out. He cleans up the cut some more with the peroxide and puts a bandage on it (to keep it closed), while we debate on whether to go to the doctor or not since I don't care about scars, and the wound was a very clean cut, but it does have the bad luck of being on a knee which means it will try to reopen every time I bend it.

I pretty much come to the conclusion that since it isn't bleeding, is a straight cut, and as long as I'm not bending my knee a lot, it probably would be fine with some butterfly bandages. So I ask Shawn to go get some butterfly bandages from the store, since I'm pretty worthless, what with the almost blacking out and feeling like I'm going to puke and everything.

Right before he left, he was going on about how cute I was--because I had never had a big boo-boo before, and I guess with the generally looking like hell. Yeah, because that's something I can control. Okay, I probably could have controlled the lolling my head about and going "guhhhh, I think I'm going to puke" a little better.

And here I never thought that I was the passing out type, or the type to get woozy seeing blood, but apparently I am.

the funny thing? It was painful, and still is (I mean I only sliced it open maybe at 2:10pm), but that part doesn't bother me--the part that bothered me was feeling so nauseous. I can even handle the almost blacking out part, just please don't make me feel like i'm going to yark. And this, ladies and gents, is why I would never be able to go through natural childbirth--because it would make me feel like I needed to yark.

I think it's probably more telling that after cleaning and bandaging, my first thought is "man, I really ought to blog about this."

On talking with my mom

A couple weekends ago, I was talking on the phone with my mom, as I am wont to do. She asked me if I had any news, so I told her of the hermit crabs (something she has been trying to convince me to do since I was 21...apparently she thinks hermit crabs do something instead of spending all their time sitting in the same spot in their tank). I also told her that I had joined the fantasy football league at work.

Now then, if you know me, you also know that I don't know jack about sports. And your normal response would be "Well, go ask Shawn, he'll tell you all about it." But you'd be wrong because he doesn't pay attention to normal sports (not that fantasy football is even a normal sport).

So, fantasy football. It will be interesting. All I've gathered from it is that there's a list of 500 players and I have to try to make up a team out of that list of players while going all round robin style with the other people in the league.

So I was trying to explain this to my mom (who also doesn't know anything about sports). And as examples, I was using players that I actually know of. So what if they were all retired?

"So yeah, I think you go through and select players by position, or if you want, you can select the entire defensive line. So if I wanted John Elway, I could get him, as long as no one else got him first. Or like if I needed a wide receiver I could get Ed McCaffrey. But of course there's this whole thing about you actually have two teams because I guess you can't have the same team every week or something, so you'd get like Joe Montana as your secondary quarterback."

"umm, honey? I don't think you're going to do so well if you keep choosing players that are all retired."

So yeah, this game promises to be fun when the only players I know are the ones that are in the news...and most of them are in the news, not because they do well at football, but because they do stupid stuff.

I am so behind the times

I totally did not know that Hugh Heffner has dropped all his old girlfriends like hot potatoes (Kendra, Bridgette, and Holly), and now has himself some younger playthings. Twins and a spare.

And really Kendra and Holly for sure left him. Funny, that.

Association of Caffeinated Wheelmen

I recently joined the Spare Tires at work.

The Spare Tires is a group of people at work who, during the month of May, did a bike to work challenge. They lost by 5 points to one of the other work groups (Team ERM). So the Spare Tires challenged Team ERM to a rematch. The rematch is supposed to be taking place right now. And so, I bring you the list of 5 reasons why our team leader is a rat bastard.

1. He set the challenge for August. In Austin, TX. AUGUST!!!
2. He then decided to take a vacation for the first week of August.
3. He forgot to tell Team ERM about the challenge so we are currently competing against ourselves. Hey, you always get first place when there's only one team competing.
4. He told us the challenge started on Saturday August 1st, so I rode my bike to the grocery store on Sunday the 2nd. Only to find out on Monday that the challenge didn't actually start until August 3rd.
5. And 5, I don't really have a 5...rather, I did earlier when I first made this list last week, but now I forget. And I just checked Greenlight again and found that the team leader for Team ERM set a new challenge, it is supposedly starting on Tuesday...but of course I think our team leader is the one that has to accept it.

Maybe, once this challenge actually gets underway (if it ever does), I'll do something like ride my bike to the local coffee shops and then write about it...of course I'd have to choose something to drink there instead of the coffee because I don't do coffee...I prefer to get my daily dose of caffeine through cola means. In any case, I probably should write to Brad and Jon and get an Association of Caffeinated Wheelmen pin. At least I now kinda qualify.

Lack of Blogging Mojo

Man.

I have totally had a lack of the blogging mojo. Like totally and completely. Except. Every day something happens in which I go "I should totally blog* about this" but then I don't. For whatever reason.

For example:
On Saturday we went to our niece's birthday party (she's now officially 2 years old...and friggin' cute as hell). On the way home we got stuck in Giddings at 1030 at night because of a train stopped on the tracks, so we went through Serbin to go around the train. We had a total Detroit Rock City moment where Shawn said "A lot of pornos start like this." And my response was "Yeah? So do a lot of horror movies." Alternately I kept thinking of the Axe Murderer Bud Light Commercial. Only instead of the Axe Murderer, I kept thinking of Alice Cooper in that Bridgestone commercial. Scary, I know.

Also:
I read a few good articles. There was one about how society is totally going to be 'effed in the coming years because girls are told via pop culture that real guys stalk you and then wait until marriage for sex while boys are told they're supposed to be having lesbian threesomes. (And now the hits too my blog have quadrupled because of the p0rn and lesbeen references). You can read that article here: Vampires Suck

I also read an article about how older people looking for jobs nowdays should really try to keep up with times technology wise...so they should be down with the blogz and tweets and what have you. They may also want to put their Linked In profile website on their resumes. Plus use a Gmail account instead of the one that is handed out by the ISP. That article is here: Landing a Job When You're Over 50

We've finished watching the TV show "Dead Like Me" and we may try to find the movie that recently came out.

The girls at work were joking that we were going to do a pregnancy pact like those high school girls, just to get even with all the guys at the office for being mean to us. They apparently all fear pregnant ladies. Odd. The most scared were the guys who most recently had pregnant wives...

I've found this last week or so that just keeping track of what I spend money on is enough to get me to save money. Now that I've come to this conclusion, I'm going to stop blogging about it because I start sucking it up when I blog about finances...that and I cheat on my budget whenever I set one--it's kinda like dieting I guess.

One of my coworkers found this website this morning. It's great fun. Translation Party.

HAHA, after looking at all of the possible tags I've created, I just realized that I totally haven't done any work on any of the pictures from our last vacation. Yeah...totally sucking it up man.

*I still find it funny that Blogger tells me that "blog", "blogger", and "blogging" are all misspelled words.

Freaking Jury Duty

Again! Again I have been summonsed to Jury Duty. It's at a different location than it was before (the previous one was for traffic court, and I'm guessing this one is for something a bit more important than a seat belt violation). But still! How the hell can I have lived here for 4 years and been summoned twice while in my entirety of living in Colorado I was summoned twice. AND SHAWN HAS NEVER BEEN SUMMONED. EVER! I think I'm going to go to said Jury Duty and ask if they can put my husband on the roster for the next summoning.

Kritturs

I've gone and gotten myself some work kritturs. Said critters are 3 hermit crabs. I have not named them yet, two of them were extremely active on the way home, the other is actually quite the hermit and didn't even move until it had been sitting in the terrarium (the crabitat if you will) for over an hour.

I set out some fresh food from Bond (grapes and spinach) so we'll see how much they eat.

The biggest problem with said crabs? They're nocturnal so I probably won't get to watch them move around much.

Update on Baby Projects

So, by the time I wrote my last entry about the baby projects, Miss Sarah's newest addition to the family was already 5 hours old.

I told you the baby wasn't going to wait until Friday.

Baked Ziti

And the last recipe to be tried out of the Best Skillet Recipes book before I had to send it back: Baked Ziti.

Of the three dishes, this is probably my least favorite. It was also the only one that I didn't pre-measure everything before starting. It maybe took an hour to do (from beginning to end), and about half of that time was used boiling and peeling tomatoes and dicing a jalapeno.

Note: The recipe did not call for fresh tomatoes, nor did it call for a diced jalapeno. It called for whole peeled tomatoes in a can and red pepper flakes. but I had like 10 tomatoes and 8 jalapenos, so I figured I'd just use the fresh stuff instead. Also, I normally don't have whole peeled tomatoes in a can lying around the house.

So, after boiling, cooling, peeling and pureeing the tomatoes, I weighed them only to find out I was a little short on tomato weight--I could have just boiled, cooled, peeled and pureed more tomatoes since I only used half of them, but decided that was too much of a pain in the butt since I was already hungry. So I used a can of petite diced tomatoes in addition to the homegrown and the Farm to Work tomatoes.

I diced a jalapeno because I had it on hand, and I need to use them. These I got from the Farm to Work thingy-ma-bopper and from Bond.

I also peeled some garlic (which, I hopefully will have growing in my garden this fall. woot!), and garlic pressed it.

I then weighed the penne I had on hand, and I only had 8 of the required 12 oz. So, since I was lazy, I decided to just add elbow mac to make up the difference instead of running to the store to pic up another box of penne--bad idea. I did at least wait 3 minutes between adding the penne and the mac to try to get them to cook to the same doneness (oh yeah, I used penne because I had it on hand instead of the ziti, and just so you know, DO NOT add elbow mac to a recipe if you're already adding a larger noodle...which I already knew, I just hoped it would have worked out).

So I cooked the pasta on the stovetop in the skillet for about 18 minutes, and then I added the cream and basil. I also decided to add in a spoonful or two of the ricotta cheese that I still had left over from the Pasta Alla Norma. Stir, cover with mozzarella cheese and bake until melted and bubbly. Let cool.

Or you do what I do and practically forget about dinner cooling on the counter because you're too busy playing on Facebook. Which is only impressive because I was HUNGRY.

So we ate dinner, and it was alright. It would have been better without the elbow mac noodles (duh), and it still seemed to be missing something...more cheese maybe. I think the ricotta was a good addition. I think the biggest problem was that I like my baked pastas to be more saucey than it was (so I should probably just add some canned spaghetti sauce to my plate). Of the three recipes we tried from the book, I think this was probably the biggest disappointment, though it is easier than most baked ziti recipes that require you to boil the ziti seperately from the sauce. Of course, even though it's a disappointment, that doesn't mean that I won't make this ever again. It is relatively easy--especially when using canned tomatoes and pepper flakes, and the ingredients aren't too out there. The only one that I for sure won't usually have on hand is the heavy cream. But seeing as how the Pot Pie recipe uses heavy cream, I'm sure we'll just do the two recipes back to back, thus making the buying of cream not such a big deal.

Skillet Chicken Pot Pie

I figure I'd write more about the recipes we've tried out of the Best Skillet Meals cookbook that I originally blogged about here and here.

I had bought all the stuff to make the pot pie at the same time I bought all the stuff to make the Pasta Alla Norma, but due to life, was unable to cook the pot pie until 4 days later, and even then, it was more of a "oh crap, this stuff is going to go bad if we don't use it" thing.

I first pulled out the pie crust (Pillsbury "just unroll" variety), fluted the edges, and cut out vent holes. Then I put it in the freezer as per directions. Of course I should have measured to make sure it would fit in the skillet. Oops. I chopped celery and carrots, measured milk and wine (which I had to substitute white wine since the grocery store doesn't sell Vermouth), and patted dry the chicken breast (and can I just mention how disgusting it is to pat dry raw chicken? EW!). I added a clove of garlic because I had one ready to go, even though the recipe didn't call for it.

I mixed, I cooked, I shredded chicken, I added the frozen peas right at the end as per directions. And then I tried to add the pie crust, only to find out that it was still bigger than the skillet, so I had to try to bend frozen pie crust just so it would touch all the delicious gooey goodness. Then I threw it in the oven for 5 minutes less than the recipe called for (Hey, it said 30-35 minutes or until the pie crust is golden brown, and it was golden brown at 25 minutes). I also didn't let it rest the full 25 minutes because we're big kids and I told Shawn that the gooey innards were going to be piping hot.

But still, we ended up eating dinner at 930.

But it was also the best pot pie I've ever had (not that I've had that many pot pies). At first Shawn said that he thought it was good, and the only downside was the amount of time it took. But then by the time he got to his 3rd helping, I stated that I was pretty sure he liked it. And he did agree that it was also probably the best pot pie he'd had too (I don't know how many pot pies he's had).

Pasta Alla Norma

So I made a recipe from the aforementioned skillet recipe book.

The recipe itself was easy, and simple, with simple ingredients.

It did, however, take 3 hours from start to finish. I would like to say that's how long it took for all the chopping, dicing, mincing and other what-have-yous, but that would be a lie. It should only take about 50 minutes to do the recipe from start to finish (including prep).

The reason why it took so long? I was talking to my mother for an hour and a half during the prep work. And since she gets all frustrated when I do things while talking on the phone (I'm not allowed to get ice for my drink, chop things on the cutting board, or type on the computer). I'm pretty sure that 'using the food processor' goes under the list of 'things not to do on the phone while talking to your mother'. Actually, i'm pretty sure that using the food processor is one of the more benign things on that list, but you get my point.

So I had to entertain myself by boiling, icing and peeling some garden tomatoes that I needed for the recipe and measuring everything out in little bowls (it could have been worse, I could have yelled "BAM!" when I added the garlic). And taking pictures. Which I won't bother to show here because I am lazy like that.

After getting off the phone with my mom, I followed the recipe and properly pulsed the tomatoes until they were smooth. Then I cut up the eggplant (I didn't want to cut the eggplant earlier because a) see list of things I'm not allowed to do while talking to my mother on the phone, and b) eggplant starts to turn brown right after you cut into it), and put it in the pan and slowly browned until done. Which was really more like I didn't want the pieces to look like shit so I took them out before they were actually done. After pouring all the eggplant into a different bowl to sit around until they were called for, I cooked the garlic, and tomato pulse puree for a while before adding the requisite amount of water and penne pasta. Stir, cover and simmer. Of course, stirring was a bit difficult as the pan was full to within 1" of the top. Anyhow, simmer until the pasta is done, stir in the cheese and cooked eggplant. And serve.

See, easy peasy. As long as you use the right cheese. I just looked at the recipe before going to the store and saw "Ricotta Salata" cheese, but didn't bother reading the part that explained that Salata is the hard ricotta, not the soft stuff I'm used to. So I added the soft cheese instead of the correct cheese...which of course imparts a gritty/grainy texture. So there you go, I can't read directions. Never mind that I also only used half the amount of eggplant and a different type of pepper than called for, plus garden tomatoes and a can of diced tomatoes instead of only canned, peeled, whole tomatoes.

Shawn said he thought it was great, and thought I was crazy when I said I would either use the correct cheese, or less of the soft cheese. In fact, his only complaint was that I didn't cook the eggplant long enough. but some of the problem there is that he's used to mushy eggplant and I can't do that--all my veggies must be slightly firm except for mashed potatoes (and even then, I'm told I like dry mashed potatoes because I don't like them to be too thin and watery). So yes, I think the next time I make this, I may just use the HEB brand crushed tomatoes (they really are like tomato puree as opposed to the name brand stuff which tends to have little tomato chunks in it), and skip the eggplant, unless I have it on hand of course. And since I ate some of the pasta before adding the cheese, it is do-able, but the cheese really does take it to the next level, but just not as much...or maybe mix the cheese with some milk.

On a side note, I hopefully will be able to grow everything needed for this recipe (except the pasta and cheese) next year in my garden since I have eggplant seeds, garlic heads, pepper seeds, and tomato seeds.

Baby Projects. Again

So all of the friends that have already had babies are now all on their second round. The first baby is due in 6 days (and I'm guessing that Miss Sarah isn't going to be able to make it to the actual due date seeing as how she's smaller than me, and they went and induced labor 2 days before her due date with Mya). Anyhow, I'm still working on the baby gift. It's not even that what I've chosen to do is all that difficult, it's just that I haven't been in a sewing mood. At all. I think it's got something to do with the weather--I get all into sewing when the weather starts to get colder. Of course, you'd point out that the last time when the girls all had babies, it meant that I was sewing through the summer. But I think I started the sewing when it was still cool-ish outside and just had to keep it going through the summer as opposed to this time where I started in the middle of the summer.

Plus after 2 baby gifts that required embroidery, 15 embroidered towels, 4 baby blankets, 2 stuffed animals, 2 soft books, and a Christmas stocking, I think I'm a little burned out on the sewing.

Admins

Our administrative assistant needs help.

On the 2nd, the first thing he said to me (at 9 in the morning) is "Wow, you're shirt makes me thirsty." I look down at my shirt. A plain lime green T-shirt. I give him a funny look and he concludes "it makes me thirsty for a margarita because your shirt is colored like a margarita."

Today, the first day I've seen him since I've been out of town for a week, he says "mmm, your shirt makes me thirsty for a Blue Hawaiian" as a greeting to me at 10am.

Aside from the fact that it looks like we might have to introduce him to Betty Ford, who says shit like that to someone? "mmm, your shirt is maroon, it makes me thirsty for a Dr. Pepper."