#59 He Encourages Me

I've started a new blog.

Have no fear, I will not be discontinuing this blog.

Rather, I have started an alternate blog totally dedicated to my kitchen.  My goal is to make a different recipe everyday.  I know this is rather ambitious of me, especially since I can honestly (and without any shame) say I don't even cook dinner every single day in a typical week.

What can I say?  Crazy people have crazy dreams.  Mine is to be inspired enough each day to make something new, whether it be a whole dinner or simply a side dish or new dessert.  Something new to eat each day.

Visit The Orange Strainer to read on more about my crazy cooking endeavors.

So here's adieu to the cooking posts found somewhere that's green:

I just got extremely hungry all of a sudden.

See you at The Orange Strainer.




  

#44 He Takes Me to Meet the Pioneer Woman

A little over a year ago, I was browsing the remainder bin at Barnes and Noble. There were books that had been left over from special events and book signings that were slightly, but not greatly, discounted in price. I fell upon a cookbook that was so awesome I had to have it, even though it was only slightly, and not greatly, discounted in price.

Me and cookbooks just aren't like that. I love to cook, but to find a cookbook that I absolutely have to have, well, I just never thought that was me.

Apparently it is.

The recipes literally had step by step pictures of the process, no matter how simple or difficult. Whether it was salt and peppering a steak or mixing together ingredients, it was pictured.

Glory hallelujah! Something that might actually show me if I was making a recipe correctly. Something that would keep me from second guessing myself until the final product had already arrived and there was no turning back.

That day I learned who the Pioneer Woman was. And my life was changed forever.

Not only did Pioneer Woman have this awesome book that I had instantly fallen in love with, but she also had a blog, something that I had been attempting, but fallen short on.

So daily I began to read her blog, and weekly something or other of Pioneer Woman's creation graced my breakfast, lunch, dinner, or dessert table.

Hubby heard about Pioneer Woman, often.

Within a nanosecond of her second book's pre-order listing, my copy was ordered on amazon.com (another thing my life would not be the same without). Her book tour was listed on her blog and I looked it over instantly hoping she would be at my local Barnes and Noble. Sadly, there were no visits scheduled to New Jersey and the signing in NYC was on the Tuesday night her book came out. Our home in New Jersey is about an hour away from NYC on a good day. The thought of driving into the city, on a school night, bounced back and forth in my mind until I gave the matter a finalized, "No".

I can't remember when hubby heard about it. But, when he did he gave me a finalized, "We're going".

I'm pretty sure I blacked out after that and didn't wake up until two days before the event.

I know, I have issues.

Don't tell me though, I'm in denial.

I'm not sure the last time I was so excited. I was so excited I couldn't sleep.

Seriously, I'm not sure what is wrong with me.

I did this ridiculous thing though. My first thought was, 'I should bring my camera. I can get a picture with her and it will be awesome,'.

And then, when it came time for me to run out the door I forgot my camera.

But, it gets worse.

I remembered that I forgot my camera upon getting into my car. Yet then, I did this too cool for school thing and thought, 'Nah, I don't need a picture with her. Plus, if I really want one, I've got my camera phone,'.

That's how I ended up with this:

Well, at least those books on top of that shelf came out clear.

Nevertheless, I left the bookstore thrilled, filled with inspiration, and

........more in love with my hubby than ever.

#35 He Eats From My Grandmother's Kitchen

I don't know if all little girls go through this stage, but when I was little I always wanted to help with cooking in the kitchen.

Always. Like, every single time always. Like, no matter what was cooking always.

The typical answer I received from my mother was, "When you're older", or "Maybe next year". Then if that wouldn't suffice she would assign me the simplest task possible, one that even my baby brothers could do, such as take the milk out of the fridge. Now as I am currently the older version of that little girl, I don't blame my mom one iota. Cooking can be stressful enough that no one needs the complication of adding a five-year-old into the equation.

But.

Ah, 'but'.

What a wonderful conjunction 'but' is. It lets you know that what will follow is going to contrast the preceding thought. And hopefully, it will take you from a thought of something not so swell to something that is.

But, not for Gram.

When I step into the room above my mind floods with the fond memories of being a little girl in Gram's kitchen. The space is not abundant, the floor carpeted, the dining room just a few steps away, but Gram has always made the best of it.

The second anyone enters her home Gram offers to cook them up a meal catered specifically to their preferences. In fact, she gets frustrated when people don't want to eat.

When my brothers and I am there she creates a regular smorgasboard consisting of anything from homemade chicken tenders, meatballs, popcorn shrimp, pizza, steak sandwiches, grilled cheese, steaks, french fries, spaghetti...

Spaghetti.

Spaghetti is etched in my memories of cooking with Gram. She would always let me break the spaghetti noodles in half and then put them in the pot for her. Every time, guaranteed, there would be a mixture of uncooked one inch noodle pieces, half noodle pieces, and full noodles scattered about the floor.

She never complained.

She never yelled.

She always laughed.

She always stayed good humored.

Today I try to actually help her, but I'm always blown away at how independent she is in the kitchen. She has dozens of things going on at once, yet gets it all done flawlessly. Every burner on the stove is in use, the stove baking, the microwave warming, the toaster oven toasting, and there is Gram among it all. Calmly moving about with such a lady like presence to her the whole time as she cooks and manages to keep her kitchen neat and clean. Not at all like me when I cook.

I'm sweaty, I've peeled off layers of clothes until I'm just about down to my skivvies, and if you talk to me I let out a raptor scream. That's just me. My kitchen? It looks like a war zone. The table is covered with remnants of what is on or in the stove, the sink is piled over with dishes probably from yesterday's dinner (or....the day's before that, or the day's before that), and sauces and spices drip from every surface I've touched.

Yes, my Gram inspires me.

• She inspires me to be willing to cook for anyone who enters my home.
• She inspires me to do the best with what I have.
• She inspires me to practice patience and learn to be peaceful as I'm giving all my concentration to my cooking.
• She inspires me to want to do better than last time.
• She inspires me to be more lady like and proper, to use the good plates even when I'm only cooking an impromptu lunch for my brothers.

Bottom line: My Gram is awesome. I'm working on a deal with God so that she will live forever.

#25 He Tells Me I've Accomplished Something

My basking in the sunshine of freedom has found its demise; I have finally returned to work. It is with great delight that I reminisce on my summer as I share what I have accomplished.

Truth be told, at one point I did feel as though I had accomplished not a lick of what I had set out to do. Try as I might, I never could get a solid summer schedule working. Each day was so different from the next because of other commitments that I could never sit down and decide on a set schedule. I tried to occasionally set a daily schedule--an hour doing this, an hour doing that, but let's face it, there were no demands forcing me to do this and that. I had no deadline except my final day of summer vacation which, when summer began, felt miles away. And a deadline felt so not summer-y.

After all, my summer off wasn't supposed to stress me out. It was supposed to be a chance to do things I couldn't do during the school year, and to complete tasks that had been put off. So the philosophy I soon took on was that as long as I was not sitting around twiddling my thumbs as I stared at the TV or sleeping poolside, I was ahead of the game.

Since I love bullets, here is my bulleted list of my accomplishments, notice that most, if not all, of them are not throw your hat in the air and hoot and holler kind of accomplishments, but they still are something to be proud of.

• I Read.

One would think as not only a teacher, but a writer and lover of books that I would read all the time. Sadly, it just is not so. This summer I hoped to eliminate that truth about myself. I read four books, all completely different, and am in the middle of three (Don't worry I'm not crazy, this can be explained). Not fantastic, but a start.

I finished off Little Women which I say with red cheeks that I started in December '10. I read through The Giver in two days to remind myself of the story. I have always moaned that I wish I lived in a society that gave out careers as they are given in The Giver, and my husband always points out the lack of freedom that such a society would have. This I know, but feel life would be so much simpler if we all grew up knowing what career was destined for each of us.

I read The Beginners Guide to Chickens because I bought it two years ago when I first decided I wanted chickens and was tired of seeing it propped up between my bed and nightstand. And finally, I read SuperFreakanomics per my husband's suggestion. It'a pretty good book if you want to be enlightened about statistical craziness that occurs in the world around you.

Now, the three books I am in the middle of. Each night I have been reading little by little The Groucho Letters: Letters From and To Groucho Marx. It's not exactly a book that requires to be read cover to cover without interruption and it provides a good laugh here and there. Second, I started Dante's Inferno that my older brother loaned me probably over a year ago. (Hopefully he won't remember that I still have it...shhh, don't tell!) The problem is that I either get spooked out or get tired from flipping back and forth from the text to the end notes that I don't have the umph to continue on without breaking for a day, week, or month. Lastly, I started reading 1, 2, 3 Magic for Teachers: Effective Discipline Pre-K Through Grade 8 towards the end of summer. I have been reading it here and there as I take an occasional break in putting my classroom together before the start of school. So far it has been pretty good despite two typos I caught in the text (This is not exactly something that someone who WANTS to be published wants to see when reading something that someone else ALREADY has had published.

• I Wrote.

My full intention for how to spend the summer was to put all my efforts into rewriting a book I completed a little under a year ago. In essence, it is my memoir of growing up with a brother who has Down syndrome. After opening the continued gift of rejection letters, I decided that it was time to change the book around, drastically. This required an entire rewrite cover to cover. I felt a little like a failure as the beginning weeks of summer passed and I still hadn't found my start. Everything I wrote felt forced or too happy go lucky. In the mean time, I worked on a children's Christmas story that I began last Christmas and when writer's block took hold of that story I then wrote another totally different children's book. This one I sent to eight publishers and have gotten my rejection from two. Here's hoping to hear back from all eight. It was probably a little over a month into summer that I got my inspiration for improving my memoir and then finally began attacking the original document with full force. I'm about a third of the way towards completion.

(Pictured: My desk mid-creative process).

• I Cleaned.

This was one of the first things I did in my days off and it never ended. It is extremely hard for me to do anything else if there is a mess lingering in the next room. Somehow deep inside as I try to get something else done I know the mess is there and it takes over all of my attention. It was when my husband commented that he hadn't washed a single dish since my summer vacation began that I knew I was doing extremely good.

• I Cooked.

In addition to writing, cooking was one of my top priorities. I've already mentioned my obsessions to The Pioneer Woman Cooks and The Farmer's Almanac Everyday Cookbook, but there were so many many others involved in the cooking madness--websites like allrecipes.com and foodnetwork.com included.

Some Of My Favorites:

*Tex-Mex Chicken: A simple simple slow cooker recipe. It was basically chicken, salsa, corn, and black beans mixed together and cooked four hours on high, then poured over white rice. Yum!

*Pesto Sauce: Paired with everything...to, die, for.

*Pineapple Coffee Cake

*Perfect Chili

*Chocolate Sheet Cake: This is heaven spread thin. I don't even have words for how wonderful this was, but if you ask my thighs they might have an answer for you.

*Knock You Naked Brownies (pictured below)

The Stinkers:

*Dinner Pasta Salad: Slow cooker recipe gone bad! Italian seasoning and pasta sauce cooked on low do not blend into anything but a bland irritation.

*Peanut Butter Cup Cake: Bland and boring.

*Easy Cranberry Chicken: My first disappointment from the Farmer's Almanac. It wasn't horrible, it just wasn't amazing like all the others.

*Soft Pretzels: Not horrible, but I could have just made bread and dipped it in salt. The next time I'm thinking about getting down and dirty and coating them in butter and then pan frying them after baking---to give it an Auntie Anne's type feel.

Last, I've been working on perfecting my own pizza pie. I'm doing my best to model off of the holiness that is Kate and Al's pizza, but I haven't gotten it quite right yet. I'm almost there though, I can feel it.

• I Exercised.

Last summer, my husband and I attempted to complete the workout course titled, "Insanity". Unfortunately, the only insane thing I've discovered about that program and any type of exercise is that it is nearly impossible to keep up while working full-time and keeping two additional part-time incomes. Let's face it, exercise is the last thing I really want

to do at the end of the day. But despite the excuses, I need it. So after the first week off, I had the time, so I began taking walks everyday.

While walking one day I watched as a girl jogged at the slowest pace ever and then realized the beauty that is jogging. I've always avoided running like the plague. After about three seconds I'm dripping in sweat, gulping for air, and pretty sure that I will expire if I continued any longer. Perhaps it is just the over achiever in me that didn't realize there was an in between to walking and running named jogging. I started jogging for about a mile and then walking another mile everyday. The problem I'm facing now is that I desperately want to keep it up, but now would have to get up extra early to do it before work, or give up relaxing in the evening to do it at night.

• I Played.
• There are only two things I could ever do and be 100% passionate about. Writing (about things I want to write about) and music.Marriage, a new home, yearly job changes, and just about any other excuse I can think of kept me from keeping that passion occurring in my daily routine. By the middle of summer, I dusted off my violin and began chugging away at exercises that eventually made my wrist sore as a subtle reminder that yes, I had indeed been away too too long. By the third or fourth day of practice, I was close to my usual strength and intend to keep at it hoping to eventually audition for a chair in a local orchestra.

• I Day-tripped.

Don't think I've forgotten about my list of inexpensive fun things to do (see post under June titled "He Lets Me Have The Summer 'Off'".) Not only did I get all the above done, but I managed to do 9 out of 23 things on my list.

* A Day at the Beach

*A Night at the Beach

--I Got to experience my first ever room service. Totally in love with it.

* Picnic at the park

--Done on one of my first days off with hubby.

* Go to the Local Farmer's Market

--Just about every week! We were stocked with local produce throughout the summer.

* A Day at the Pool

--Let's face it this should really be "Days at the Pool". My grandmother has a nice in

ground pool which I visited frequently (*note, only after I had accomplished a lot

already in that day.)

* Shopping

* Farm Fairs

* Festivals

--A rodeo counts right? Totally an out of the ordinary, yet fun experience.

* Go to see Fireworks

(Philly as the sun sets before fireworks come on the Fourth of July)

Of course, there were things that I wanted to do from my list but didn't get to, but only a few. The ones I wish I had done were: Grounds for Sculpture, the Freehold Racetrack, and NYC. Don't worry for me though, I'm sure I will get there eventually.

Overall, in retrospect of my time spent at home I have to say I loved it. (But, you knew that already didn't you?) I guess after years and years being just a housewife might get boring, but being a housewife my way I don't think could ever get boring.