Yummy Pasta for Kimmer, and alla youse, too

Not that I'm Ree or anything, but this is some good pasta. I blatantly stole this from a meal I had in Sugar Land at Leonardo's this fall. Usually I am a sketti and meatballs kind of girl; my pasta should be long, stringy, and capable of being slurped. My sauce has to be a jar affair, because I just don't have eight hours to make sauce myself. OK, I do, but I refuse to give up a day to cook it. If I had a large kitchen with an MP3 player going and maybe some adult beverages, I might could swing it.



I have simple tastes, is what I am saying.



But this dish intrigued me. I brought home leftovers and tried to analyze them. I poked around in my food enough to drive my mother crazy were she with me. In the end, I came up with this. It can't be exactly what I ate, but it's close enough; it's rilly rilly good, not your usual pasta fare, and is simplicity itself. Plus, I figured it out myself, so technically, this is my recipe. I sorta created something, even! The ingredients aren't measured well, because it's so easy to vary. If you hit near my recommendations, you'll be fine.

Chicken Farfalle

olive oil
diced chicken breast (1-2 breasts, more if desired for larger servings)
chopped onion (1 medium-sized one will do)
chopped frozen or fresh asparagus (either works fine; fresh is easier to come by - use as much as desired, but I put the whole bunch in)
fresh chopped spinach (1-2 handsfull)
2-3 tbsp sun-dried tomatoes (use more or less as desired)

Saute asparagus in oil about 4 minutes, then add chicken and cook until no longer pink. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally until onion is translucent. Add spinach and tomatoes and stir together well. Cover and let sit on low heat, stirring occasionally, until spinach is wilted. Serve over bow-tie pasta (farfalle.)

Variations:

* add other vegetables such as mushrooms, small broccoli bunches, zucchini at the same time as asparagus
* add 1 clove garlic, crushed when adding chicken
* sprinkle lemon juice in pan when adding chicken

You can really make this your own by playing with it and adding different things. It all goes in one pan, and you can do it in order as above, or precook the chicken and onion together and have them in the fridge ready to add when the asparagus is starting to cook. The thing that gives it the zing, for me, is the sun-dried tomatoes. They add so much flavor it doesn't need much more seasoning. This adjusts to any size crowd, from dinner for two to a dozen. Just figure for each person about 1/4 chicken breast, 3 spears asparagus, 1/8 onion, and more or less tomato as desired.

If you make this, let me know how you liked it. I'm kinda proud of it.

Sorry

I didn't forget to post so much as I got majorly sidetracked. Everyone knows the holiday swirls around us and throws curves we didn't expect. Still, it's a little embarrassing.

One major time-sucker has been the Anne of Green Gables books. Some fool left them at school for eons and I decided I'd take them home to read over the holiday. Oh Em Gee, those books are just crack for a reader. I'm on the last Anne one, and MAKING myself walk away to feed the family, clean the house, pay the bills. Why did I never read these before?

Oh, and we did get to have Christmas morning at home, and it was delightful. After returning from my parents' we set to getting the huge dollhouse assembled. It took forever, then we had other things to set out. At one point JJ had to look up the dollhouse online to see how it was supposed to look. He left it up, so first thing after the Little Critter finished with her opening things was to go to the computer. There was the window open to the dollhouse. BUSTED!

This was probably going to be the last Christmas she believed in Santa, and JJ almost ruined it. He saved the day by saying "LC, I have to confess. I got up early and saw this stuff. I had to use that computer to look it up since I didn't want to wake Mom. I wanted to see what kind of house that is."

She bought it.

Then he walked around swearing "damn internet" all day.

The Bigun gave me the lovely sign you see above.

And all of the family got tins of candy from us. I made peanut chocolate clusters, peanut marshmallow things that taste like Snickers bars without caramel, pecan pretzel things and, of course, mudballs. I also made a neato pasta dish to be served over bow tie noodles. My parents were so anxious to try it they completely forgot about the noodles, but I think it was a success anyway.

I have to say one thing for the post-holiday period. My phone has rung exactly once when it has not been family. No crises loom, no mad dash to get anything done for work or school, just peace, quiet, family, and housework.

And that Anne.

I'm not that girl

J and I were shopping for stuff for teacher lunch today, and after traipsing all through the aisles, knocking things over and nearly breaking them, I was ready to leave. It was her event but I had already committed to a long list of baking and cooking.

See, we started out in produce, where I showed her how English cucumbers could be used as a weapon. These hummers were over 15" long and heavy, and we needed a pair for the salad. After that we hit canned goods, dairy, frozen foods and every other corner of the store. I kept forgetting things and we'd have to backtrack. Plus I had a bum cart with the wheel that won't cooperate, so I was banging into wine displays, cell phone displays and other carts.

We'd forgotten pretzels, so we had to schlep over to the chip aisle. I grabbed just two bags, because really, there are only so many pretzels one can coat in chocolate before one explodes. J asked how many more I needed. I said "None! What, are you trying to chain me to the kitchen ALL DAY?"

Unbeknownst to me, right beside us was a lady who must have heard this as a lovers' spat. According to J, she gave us a disgusted, dirty look and shrank away to another aisle. When J told me what happened, we doubled over in the middle of the beer aisle laughing so hard. It certainly perked up the rest of the shopping trip.

Finally we made it to checkout and ran both orders we were buying and J took over cart-pushing, announcing loudly "I'm the man of the house, I'm pushing the cart!"

And who was there to hear this comment? Oh, yes, the disapproving lady from the chip aisle.

A wonderful lesson on thinking before one passes judgement. And on the fact that a pair of 15" cucumbers in your cart say a lot about you when you shop with a friend.

Final Countdown

OK, so I didn't exactly stick to my plan of stress-free holiday-ing. In fact, I pretty much suck at it. But that's okay, because this year there is one important first that has overshadowed all the suckiness of my character, or lack thereof.

I'll be home for Christmas!

Yes, since my mom is working Christmas day we'll be doing the family Christmas on Christmas Eve. And since there's no good place to board the dogs, we'll be returning home that night and falling asleep in our own beds.

And therefore waking up in them as well.

I can't explain how big a deal this is for me. I won't even try. Just say I'm overjoyed and glad and leave it at that. So that leaves me with a little baking, a lot of shopping, and the regular mess of things to do.

Today is competition meeting after school for which I need to invent a challenge, then shopping tonight, if I'm lucky, or sorting pictures to download to my in-laws digital frame if I'm not. Then tomorrow I take JJ to the doc, work, shop some more if possible, and make sure the Bigun goes to the dentist. Wednesday is prep for the teacher lunch on Thursday, and Friday is loaded. Friday there's a sing-along, classroom parties, cleanup, drama class, then a caroling event in the evening. Work Saturday and then I'm free, except for holiday prep, until the new year.

It didn't help that I had a headache most of the weekend, but still the LC and I had a baking day and churned out 4 dozen toll house cookies (FROM SCRATCH!) and made sugar cookies (also from scratch.) We're up for fudge and mudballs as soon as we can find the time. I guess that will be April at this rate.

Too Much Information

It's report day. So I'm running reports for the board and general meetings, having lunch with the LC, trying to clean a little around the house, preparing for a meeting after school for the challenge competition, and then I'm off to my first official meeting of the party executive committee. I've already averted disaster by redating two requests that put me off by $33.16. Glad that's fixed.

I'm not a math person at all. Why did I agree to do this treasurer thing? For that matter, why did I get an accounting degree?

At any rate, aside from trying to figure out who spent what on which things, I'm reading Dinesh D'Souza. I always feel dumb when I start one of his books. He's a Dartmouth-educated immigrant from India, and incredibly detailed in his analyses of whatever he tackles, from higher education to religion to the post 9/11 world. By the time I finish a book he has written I do feel smarter, but I also have headaches from stretching my brain. I haven't thought this much since college lit.

It makes me think of going back to school for something. Anything.

I miss hashing out ideas. I miss pouring over a work and feebly attempting critical analysis. Reading this level of stuff actually makes me miss my high school friend Sean. He was one for making me stretch my brain on a daily basis. Between Sean and Burte, another one too smart for me, I was able to divert my attention from all the high school mess going on around me and stay sane. But nowadays, there's almost nothing making me insane that I cannot walk away from.

I worked the first of the last three days at church yesterday, and as I thought, it went easier because I knew there was an end date. It actually wasn't a typical crazy day, with the possible exception of Charlie. When Charlie and his mom arrived, I got the warmest greeting. Poor guy, I've had him under my supervision one way or another since he was three. The first day I met him he tried to throw himself down the stairs to get away from me. (Charlie does NOT like change.) Since then, I've had him in class and then as a hall monitor, and when nobody else can handle him, I get him.

He got booted from worship for doing whatever he wanted a few months ago, and his parents have been trying to come in and stay with him to ease the problem. That didn't work out well, so they went back to leaving him. It makes their Sundays crazy, because they never know when they'll get a call to come get him.

But when he started again yesterday, we pulled him out of class and he had to sit outside the room with me. It took about 20 minutes for him to settle, and only the prospect of getting cupcakes for snack sobered him. He tried everything; whining, wrestling, crawling all over the hallway, but I worked him over with Love and Logic principles and he seemed to respond a little. When it was snack time, he carried in the cupcakes for the class, and then went like an angel to service and participated more fully than I had ever seen him. His parents had a whole Sunday in class and worship without the fretting, and Charlie had a good time once he reined himself in. It felt good to report back to his mom and brag on how he got himself under control. The look on her face at pickup time was worth all the fuss he gave me.

Then I had to tell her I'm leaving. I don't regret leaving, but I hate to see them get him settled in again only to have him regress soon after I leave.

*note to self: this is not my problem*

So maybe I can go back to school for early childhood development? At least there's no accounting involved.

Things can only get better

Once again, I'm in a mood.

JJ and I went to Comedy Sportz tonight. Like on a date even, since the Little Critter is at a sleepover. We had a great time, but still, I'm in a mood. Part of it has to be that I have to work in the morning. That's as fun as lint-harvesting. Still, I should be excited to have only three more weeks of church work until I can be out of there. When I gave my notice, the boss said "You sure are one busy woman."

Ya think?

Still, I don't know why I'm a grumpus. Maybe it's the general holiday malaise. Maybe it's that I've reached my tolerance limit for taking crap. Whatever it is, I'm sure it's temporary. Still, I bore myself when I'm this way, so I can only guess what anyone reading feels.

I think I'll commit to two things; breaking in my new food steamer and baking something from scratch. There's bound to be some mood-altering qualities in steamed vegetables. I KNOW there are in chocolate.

Money

Five hundred twenty-two dollars and change, deposited after an hour's effort at the bank. School store has earned all its income for the year! Strike up the band! Light the fireworks! Crack open the case of sparkling adult beverages!

Something works in the PTA after all.

Hello Goodbye

I'm again reaching terminal velocity, running eighteen places at once. It's another full roster; school store, classes, treasurers' meeting, hearing screening, reports to prepare for next week's meetings, the GOP executive committee meeting, and that's just through Tuesday. I work this weekend too.

The short but fun update to the neverending saga over the nurse:

My friend who witnessed the exchange where I was cleared made a phone call to the fundraiser chair yesterday. After talking some other business, she said this: "I have to tell you, whoever said Fish stole phone numbers and called parents is a total liar. Fish confronted the nurse today and the nurse said it didn't have anything to do with her."

"How do you know that?" she was asked.

"I was there! I heard the whole thing! And believe me, now Fish is on the warpath. She's going back to the president and finding out where she got her information, because that's slander!"

According to my friend, it got really quiet on the line.

Let the kissing up commence, she is on notice. Not saying she definitely did it, but I have a feeling.

Bonus good news; people finally got off their duffs and got their deposits and check requests turned in. Nothing like a little ultimatum to get people moving. One person has been sitting on some checks since September, and I'm the one getting e-mails about it. Love that.

And yay me, I told church today to take me off the next months' rotations, so I have actually dropped an activity! Let's see if I can make it a habit. Right after convention. Or after the competition. Or maybe after the primary...

Lies

That one ought to be really easy.

I was vindicated today. And it felt so sweet.

A few months ago, I helped the school nurse with hearing screening. I take that seriously, so when I noticed her doing something that could inadvertently tip off a child as to when to indicate he heard the sound, I called her on it. I didn't do it in the most positive way, and I feel badly about it to this day.

At the same time, screeners ought to reduce "interference" as much as possible, and I don't feel badly about bringing it up.

At about this time, there was an issue with the fundraising chair over how to record deposits. That ended up with the president taking me aside and giving me a lecture on how, if I were to become president, I needed people to like me.

Yeah.

At the end of that lecture, she brought up the nurse. I thought she'd address the way I brought up the testing integrity issue. Instead, she informed me that she had been told this: that I had contacted a parent and told the parent to forget the nurse's test. I reportedly told this parent the nurse didn't know what she was doing, and the kid needed retesting. Also, according to the nurse, the kid passed the original test.

This is bovine excrement.

I have been leery of getting involved again in testing because of the whole hearing screening issue. Yesterday, when the nurse asked me to help out again, I was shocked. So after testing the kids today, I grabbed a friend to witness the conversation and talked to the nurse. I told her what the president had said, and she immediately said "Oh, no! That's not what happened at all! What was said was much more of a general statement, and I know who said it and it surely wasn't you!"

So all this extra stuff was a fabrication, someone just making things up. One friend remembers that around this time the resident bigmouth S made broad general statements about the nurse's competence at screening, which she also attributed to me (surprise.) It was S who suggested that we call the parents and tell them they needed to have their kids independently screened. Several people heard this, and it was the following Tuesday that the president brought it up. One of those people happened to be the fundraising chair.

Now I have proof someone slandered me, and I'll be bringing it up to the president and asking her for her source. I've overlooked a lot this year, but this is my reputation, my integrity. I got called on the carpet for something awful that I never did, and have had people thinking that I did do it all this time. Sure, there are people who know me and know better, but they had to have experienced a bit of doubt, too. Most people, however, know I would never "steal" a phone number and contact a parent to undermine the school.

I'll report back on the outcome, but at least today I had the satisfaction of being vindicated in front of a witness, and to have her know for sure means a lot to me.

Great Indoors

Nobody is into guessing the song titles yet?

The temperature has finally dropped significantly, reaching the classification of an official change of seasons. This is great news in a way, because I loathe sweating. But in another way, it's a headache. I really don't keep a large collection of cold-weather clothing. Don't get me wrong, I love sweaters and jackets. I just don't have enough to get through an actual cold spell. And pants? Forget it. Everything has to be hemmed, and even then nothing fits right.

I end up wearing a scarf all day every day, just to keep my neck warm, and my back will not officially be warmed up until spring. That's depressing. I'm going to be chilled until at least March. No amount of clothing makes my back warm. Good thing JJ has warm hands.

I say every year that I'll not complain about the cold, because I know then I'll end up with a scorcher of a summer. This has not worked out as a life strategy, though, because the summer still bakes me regardless of that happens in the cooler months. I admit it, I'm a wimp. People who live in colder climates are laughing at me now. If civilization depended on my being able to handle temperature fluctuations, we'd all be doomed.

Still, in a way, something hopeful happens to me in the fall, something to do with finding a greater variety of weather than hot or wet. And somehow I always end up getting to go shopping for warmer clothes, and shopping is rarely a bad thing. Still, if anyone has any tips short of toting around a huge extension cord and a heating pad to keep me warm this year, let me know. I'm shivering with anticipation.

Virtual Insanity

That one ought to be easy.

And it describes the school event for the weekend. After I worked I went back to help clean up, and was told by the event coordinator "I'm not doing money today." Meaning, I suppose, that she didn't want to worry about a deposit. Hey, I just came to clean! I surely wasn't going to worry about it.

But upon arriving at school this morning, I went in search of the money so that if it were not in a locked cabinet I could secure it. I couldn't find it anywhere. There's no telling what happened to quite a few hundred dollars. I assume someone has it in their custody, but I wish they had made arrangements beforehand. Over the weekend I got an e-mail question: Did we pay the caterers? Um, didn't anyone notice that I was NOT THERE and had no opportunity to pay them? That there was no documentation requesting a check? That they kinda had to get that worked out ahead of time?

Apparetly not.

So as soon as I finished minimal business this morning, I split. If some situation caused by the event blows up today, I don't want to be anywhere around. It's hard to be a treasurer and make people follow rules. It's harder when there's no one with greater authority willing to enforce them. It's hardest when you're told "You need to let people fail and stop stepping on toes." when you know a few words here or there would save a lot of trouble.

One Bible study teacher explained Biblical legal tradition thus: God gave man a few laws to follow, such as to honor the Sabbath. Man, being what he is, will always fall short of the law. Therefore, the legal tradition added to the law in order to make it more narrowly defined. It was, he said, like moving the sidelines on a football field. If a team's chief goal was to stay inbounds, then narrowing the field would always keep players from going out of bounds. The problem, he said, is that people begin to view the new constraints as the original law. So they narrow the field again, meaning that now you can only walk so many miles on the Sabbath. Yes, it kept people inbounds, but distorted the entire purpose of the original law, which was to rest, worship, set aside time for God and family, and recharge for the week ahead.

This is how I seem to be operating at school. There are a whole set of things I can't do. I can't offer help; I have to wait until I'm asked. I can't intercede when someone is struggling; I have to be invited into the problem. I can't preemptively coach people on procedures; I have to let them screw up and then try to fix it. It's insane. I'm a problem-solver by nature. It's what I do. I see something not working and I think of a way to get in on track. This, however, is not a skill highly prized in this community. Instead I'm supposed to let people figure things out. Let people realize they need help and come to me. Stay out of things unless specifically asked to get involved. I don't want to run everything, I swear! I just want to see things done correctly. And I'm shackled.

No Time This Time

I'm trying to see if I can name all the posts after songs I've known. Bonus points to the one who guesses where this one comes from. Double bonus points if you didn't have to look it up on the internet.

But literally, I had no time yesterday to post, so I'm already out of the Holidailies running. I was up early to go perform puppets at the school's Breakfast With Santa event. Immediately following that, I had to rush to get to work and teach two classes. Then a quick lunch and a trip to Kohl's to get JJ some clothing. Of course, the little Critter had to go shopping too, then camped out in the toy area. This would have been fine had she not just lost a $28 game from Blockbuster and is under obligation to pay it back. We ended there and ran home with just enough time to get to a production of one of my students in his Christmas play. That was several hours long, but adorable and well worth it. By the time we got home, I was ready to collapse. I nearly blew off church this morning, but until I quit working at the other church I will have very few chances to go to an actual worship service. I'm glad I did go, but I'm still wiped.

JJ got out all the Christmas decor and tree things yesterday, and so the LC is off in the entryway opening boxes, unwrapping lights, sorting ornaments and making a large mess. Meanwhile he has escaped to the store and the gas station. I'm hoping the schedule this year allows us to be here on Christmas morning. It might be worth it to do some decorating after all. It always feels so pointless, setting up the tree, the lights, the mantle, the low wall, only to be somewhere else for the holiday. I suppose there's something to be said for setting the mood of the season, but usually the season just offers more opportunities to get into scrapes with people over stupid stuff.

Maybe I'd be smarter to make New Year's resolutions at Thanksgiving.