Recipe of the Week

One down, only 248 to go!  Actually I tried 2 new recipes this week, and I really don't know how many are in the box.  I am guessing.  Because couting them one by one is too much work, that's why! lol  So here we are:

Pineapple Limeade
2 c pineapple juice
1/4 c lime juice
1/4 c sugar
3 c sparkling water

Combine first 3 ingredients, add sparkling water just before serving. 

*Not sure what they mean by sparkling water.  Can you get carbonated water that has no flavor or additions?  My first attempt I used club soda----not good, unless you like your drinks very dry!  The second time around I used Sierra Mist (it's what I had on hand) and it was MUCH better.  I would recommend something like ginger ale.

My take:  It was tasty, but just a typical "punch" recipe.  Nothing to see stars over.  =)


Brief Burritos
1 lb ground beef
1 can (16oz) refried beans
1 can (10oz) rotel tomatoes, drained
1/2 c chili sauce
8 flour tortillas, warmed
1/2 c shredded cheddar
1/2 c sour cream

Cook beef until no longer pink; drain.  Stir in refried beans, tomatoes and chili sauce; heat through.  Spoon about 1/2 cup down the center of each tortilla; top with cheese and sour cream. Fold up and serve.

My take:  I liked these!  Very easy---easy enough for me to be able to do it after work even if I had to work the next day.  Don't require much energy and very tasty.  I used ground turkey and you can't even taste it.  My filling was a little more runny than I usually think of for burritos, but it may have been the turkey---or the fact that I didn't realize the tomatoes were supposed to be drained until after I had them in the skillet.....duh!  The filling is quite tomato-ey (not a word, I know!  But you know what I mean, right?), and not real beany, so I'm thinking next time I make it I'll used more beans.  I love beans!  All in all I give it an A+ and plan to put it in the "to make again" category.

So there you have it.  What category should I try next week?  Any suggestions?

Happy Eating!  =)

Another Adventure

For quite some time I have had a yen to cook my way through a cookbook.  But I am hesitant to start something like that and then get bogged down part way through and quit.  I'm super good at starting things, and of course they are exciting in the beginning, but then I stall in the middle somewhere.  Sometimes I do get them finished---maybe much later---but sometimes I don't.  I don't like that!  So I've been hesitant to start a cookbook project and it be yet another adventure I don't complete.  And then there is the question of which cookbook.  I have a lot!  Should it be a regular cookbook like Julie cooked through in Julie and Julia?  Or should it be a cookbook that contains one particular genre of food, like desserts or cookies, etc.?  So much decision making!  The trouble is, most cookbooks have at least a few recipes that do not appeal to me.  I mean, the thought of making Tomato Jello is simply unthinkable!  And what about Bowtie Pasta with Olives and Anchovies?  *shudder*  What would I do when I came to recipes like that?  Would I just cheat and skip those recipes---and live forever with the knowledge that I did not really cook through that cookbook?  Or would I cook them and then just waste the food because I couldn't stand it?  Neither option appeals to me.  Then the other day it came to me---a lightbulb moment.  Or maybe I should say "candle" moment in my case, as  my excited ideas are sometimes quick to blow out!  Anyway, a light came on.  I have in my possession a photo box (you know those pretty boxes they sell in the craft stores that look kind of like shoe boxes) crammed full of recipes that I have collected over the years.  One year when I was off work for a few months I sat down with all these recipes that I'd pulled out of magazines and glued them all nice-like to cards made from printed cardstock.  I even organized them like a recipe box.  It's really quite pretty.  Have never done much with it, but it's pretty. lol  Mind you this is by no means a complete collection!  I have recipes everywhere!  I have little piles of them stashed all through my house.  I do this on purpose so that if my house is raided I'll still be sure to be left with a little pile of recipes! lol  I couldn't cook all the recipes I have in two lifetimes if I cooked 24/7!  But I consider it a cheap hobby, and once in a while you find something that's a real keeper.  I save them all with the hope that one day I will miraculously have more time than I know what to do with!  Ha!  Anyway, back to the box.  Here I have probably 200 recipes that have all been hand-selected by me.  What better collection to cook through than this one??  No recipes to cheat over, none to make me shudder.  Problem solved!  Now if I really could get a FedEx delivery of time......hmmm.  So I have 2 recipes sitting out to try.  I don't know if I'll get all of them tried or not.  I probably can only do 1 new recipe in a week, maybe 2.  At that rate it will take me about 4 years to get finished!  Can I keep up with a project that long?  I doubt it, but it's a place to start.  I think I will just pick a random recipe from a random category each week---rather than cook through Candy then Casseroles then Dessert, etc.  I will try to post about the recipes I try--good or bad.   I may or may not post pictures.  I am NOT a food blogger!  Don't have anywhere near the patience for that!  When I cook, I cook.  And if you're here you can see all the steps and if you're not.......well you're just outta luck! lol  So here's to another adventure.  We'll see how long it lasts.  But at least there will be no Tomato Jello.........=)

Exhaustion or Adrenaline.....

The Exhaustion hit this past weekend.  I should have expected it.  What with all the goings on of the last several weeks, some personal stuff going on, and then work---with a new computer system to boot!  So I shouldn't have been surprised that I felt like a puppet without strings come Friday evening.  But I was.  I wondered what on earth was wrong with me---thought maybe it was a virus or something.   I mean it was that kind of tired where just the thought of moving makes you want to weep, let alone the idea of getting anything done!  I did manage the laundry, craft day at church on Saturday, and Sunday morning service, but not much else.  I wasn't even sure I was going to make it for Sunday morning, but what else was there to do except sit in a chair or lay in bed, and both of those activities make me restless after a while.  So I figured I could at least go sit in the pew and try to absorb something!  =)  It was good too.  This morning, however, I felt much better.  Not a ball of fire or anything, but at least not that mind-numbing exhaustion.  This afternoon though, I am experiencing the other end of the spectrum---adrenaline.  No, nothing disastrous happened at work (thank the Lord!), but I am running all day and then the end of the day is catch up of everything I didn't get to or couldn't do yet, and my head is spinning with everything there is to remember.  Not to mention all the things to remember how to do with this new, complex computer system---and having to wait for it (which is almost more than my nerves can stand!)!  So lately, by the time I punch out I am literally racing on the inside and am having trouble coming down again.  It's not a good high either!  It would be wonderful if I got ramped up and could come home and have the energy to tear into a project or two in order to get calmed down again.  Unfortunately this is that kind of ramped up where you almost feel sick and don't have the energy---or presence of mind---to concentrate on any projects.  Today it's taking a loooong time to come down.  It reminds me of our soldiers after their missions.  If I feel this bad after a day where the only thing threatening me is a new computer system, I can only imagine how they feel after a life-threatening event in the field! No wonder they don't know what to do with themselves sometimes!  I don't know what to do with myself today! lol  Well, ok, maybe it's not just today, but let's not talk about that, shall we?  =)  I think maybe I should install a punching bag!  I have considered it!  Or maybe I should go get mower Fred out and push it wildly back and forth across the yard!  Now wouldn't that be a sight!  But it might at least bring me back to earth more quickly! lol  Really, this thing of extremes is getting to be too much.  I hope things calm down soon so I can plod safely down the middle of the road!  Now excuse me while I go look for something to get me down off this high.  If anyone has any ideas, I'm open!  =)

Why is it that I seem to get the most done on the days I don't try?  Today has been one of those days.  I started out slow, spent time lolling over my coffee, "organizing" my dreams.  It's nice to do that once in a while.  Take time to just sit and think over your dreams and hopes and get them in order.  I have so many dreams, and gather so many ideas day after day, they get a bit muddled in my head and make me feel disordered.  So sometimes I need time to sit and file them, as it were.  Maybe none of you ever have the need to do this.  But I do.  I'm special that way.  =)  Anyway.  After I got my dreams all in order, I decided it was time to get down to business on this mile long to-do list of mine.  Amazingly I sailed right along, even though I didn't really feel like starting anything.  And, as happens now and then---maybe the planets were aligned just right, I don't know! lol---I not only accomplished things from today's list, but from tomorrow's too (well, not tomorrow literally, just beyond today, if you know what I mean!).  Without stress!  I love it when that happens!  Some days I start out with the Grand Plan to get a multitude of projects and chores done, and at every turn there is one obstacle or another, or things just don't come together, and I end up feeling very frustrated---and accomplish almost nothing.  But thankfully there are also days like today when I tool along marvelously and get so much done.  Makes me feel downright accomplished!  lol  Later!

Between Then and Now

Here I am again.  Whew!  It's been an interesting ride!  My OCD keeps telling me to wait until a more "even" date to start blogging again---like the 5th or the 15th---or March 1st even!  But if I do that, something will be sure to come up on that date to keep me from blogging (dontcha know!), and I'll have to start all over---and never get back to blogging!  So I am ignoring my OCD (for once!) and blogging today.  Ignoring my "condition" doesn't happen too often, so enjoy it! lol  Speaking of "conditions" reminds me of work today (which was quite the ordeal let me tell you!).  We started "live" on a new computer system---except that someone in the Corporate office forgot to flip the switch for us to go live, so this morning at 0500 what we had was the leftovers of a dead system (read unusable) and a new system that said we didn't exist.  Basically, nothing.  Nice! Fortunately we had had the foresight yesterday to make sure we had patient orders on paper for just such an occasion.  Not that corporate fails us very often (insert heavy sarcasm here!), but just in case..... So thankfully we could at least get our patients up and running.  We just wrote everything down---which then had to be entered in the computer manually when corporate decided to turn the new system on!  That was a joy to be sure!  But back to my story.  I was explaining to one of the patients about the new system that was but wasn't and how it was making us all discombobulated.  One of my co-workers said, "Not me, I'm just being normal."  To which I replied that at least for this one day I could blame my discombobulation on the computer system and get away with it! =)  It seems I have more than one "condition" to ignore! lol  It was a tiring day, but hopefully tomorrow will be better.  This is not the first time we have been glad we are not a huge clinic!  More chairs today would have been a Disaster!

So where have I been?  That is a very good question!  As Bilbo Baggins might say:  "I've been there and back again."  I've done quite a bit of traveling since my last post.  It was, unfortunately, for sad reasons.  My dear Uncle Charles passed away after quite a struggle with Parkinson's Disease.  He was a godly man, so we know that he is far better off now and reunited with other dear ones who have gone before him.  I would not wish him back to his life the way it was, with his suffering, but it is sad for us to know that he is not around anymore.  He had 2 funerals, one in the North because he (and much of his family) was from there, and one in the South where he lived.  I went to both.  Because I wanted to, that's why!  =)  So my traveling went something like this:  Drove to Florida for a weekend and back home, flew to Pittsburgh via Baltimore (that was an adventure!), drove to The Farm (my Grandpa's old place, not anything to do with the CIA! lol)  and back to Pittsburgh,  flew to Raleigh via Baltimore.  All told, something like 2500 miles total.  Let me stop a minute and catch my breath!  There.  That's better.  Whew! But now let me tell you about my adventure.  It just so happened that the "Northern Funeral" as we came to call it (vs the Southern Funeral---believe me it was just easier that way!) fell right during my already previously scheduled vacation.  This would have been my "Christmas" trip home since I couldn't make it at Christmas time.  This was handy in that I was already covered at work.  However it did make for a rather interesting Christmas vacation! lol  Anyway, I was scheduled to fly from Raleigh to Albany where my parents would pick me up and the next day the 3 of us would drive to PA to The Farm.  I made it as far as Baltimore with flying colors........then they cancelled my flight to Albany.  Oh joy!  Baltimore is getting as bad as Philly! lol  There was a second flight available---but was filled just before I got to the front of the line.  Double bummer!  When I got to the desk, my option for Albany was to wait until 9-something that night ( I had been at the airport since 0930!) and hope that one wasn't cancelled for some reason, or to pick another city.  Oh why not?  I asked the rep if there was anything available for Pittsburgh.  She looked at me a little funny for just a minute and I could almost hear her thinking "You do know that Pittsburgh is in an entirely different direction from Albany, don't you?"  Bless her, she didn't say it!  I did, however, explain to her that I was planning to drive to the area the next day anyway---so she wouldn't think me completely nuts!  She tapped on her little keyboard and Lo! and Behold! there was a flight to Pittsburgh that very afternoon with seats available!  Lucky me!  But then there was the matter of my baggage.......2 bags already thoroughly checked through to Albany........Oh dear!  But this rep was resourceful and she got on her walkie-talkie to someone in baggage, and after just a bit of back and forth, the baggage man had found my bags and sent them in the right direction.  Of course, at the time, I confess to a bit of doubt that my bags would get where they were supposed to go.  I could picture them somehow still ending up in Albany, or worse yet, ending up in the dead-end luggage department of nowhere!  And me in a denim skirt for a week--and to a funeral no less!  *shudder*.  But thankfully, no such disaster occurred.  The baggage man did indeed get my bags on the right plane.  It was such a relief to look out the window of the plane in Pittsburgh and see my bags on the cart!  Whew!  Fortunately that was my only real adventure of the trip.  I can't take too much excitement, dontcha know! lol  The upside to all this is that I got to spend almost 24 unexpected and delightful hours with my grandparents who live near the Pittsburgh airport.  Definitely my silver lining!  =)

So my "Christmas" vacation was spent at The Farm, which was not an unpleasant thing.  The grandparents are gone, but the house is pretty much set up the same as it was, complete with attached memories.  And I did spend the time with my family---more of my family, in fact, than I would have, had I just gone on my regular vacation.  True, none of my gifts to others were wrapped, and they were given out in a rather hodge-podge manner, but still it was pleasant.  It was nice to spend days with my parents, sisters, cousins and aunts---instead of just hours.  There were tears, yes, but there was also plenty of laughter and smiling---maybe we could call it a Muted Celebration.  =)  There is something very comforting and pleasant about spending sad times together with close family.  It magnifies the joy and eases the sadness, somehow.  Maybe it's because we know Dear Uncle is in heaven or because we have shared memories or because we love each other---or maybe all of the above.  =)  Whatever the reasons, it was good to be all together in one place (18 of us even slept in that one house, and I will tell you 41+ does not sleep on the floor as well as 12! lol). 

So that's me between then and now. Are you asleep yet?  I'll see if I can keep the posts rolling..........but don't hold your breath!  I would really hate to be responsible for anyone's demise! =)  Ciao!