Love in the Time of Cholera

Wow. This book was the toughest I've read in a while, and I've had it on my shelf for a while, andI was intimidated. It's been made into a movie too - here's the site to see the trailer and some clips if you're interested in seeing the "greatest love story ever told".
(A bold statement, no?)

Well, I'm not sure I agree w/ the greatest love story ever told (gotta be Romeo & Juliet, sorry Gabe). Cholera was a tremendous book. I loved it. It was about the love story of Fermina Daza and Florentino Ariza... and the path of their lives. I wish so bad that I could spoil the ending because it was seriously the best part, and the reason for the title. A satisfying ending to a book is so important to me... and this one delivered big time!!!

One thing I wasn't so crazy about in this book was the tendency for it to go on and on and on and on about something boring... but then, he just jumps in with something ridiculously touching and beautiful, and it catches you off guard and makes it even more powerful. Like this - in the first 40 pages one of the characters, Juvenal Urbino dies (it's on the back cover, relax, I'm not spoiling anything! :) ) He's married to Fermina, and the author goes in to great detail about their deep relationship and love for one another, blah, blah blah...then hits you w/ this:

"He recognized her despite the uproar, through his tears of unrepeatable sorrow at dying without her, he looked at her for the last and final time..." Are you crying? Cause I kind of am. The writing is just so moving.

Another good quote:

"...his conviction that human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but that life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves." p 167

On to Curious Incident of The Dog At Night-time... :)

State Of the Union Drinking Game

Tonight we have Casey & Amy coming over for the last of our SOTU speeches from George W Bush! The end of an era... to "get through" these speeches, we've used this game, which we've added to each year. It definitely makes the dry speeches a little more interesting. If you have a few beers and nothing to do tomorrow, give it a try! (It's on at 9 tonight.)

State of the Union Drinking Game
Unless otherwise specified, drink a shot of beer for each thing.

• Mention of Freedom– Optional Drink
• Education – Amy’s call
• Technology – Scott’s call
• Foreign dependence on Oil/Gasoline prices – Jamie’s call (bc she drives an SUV)
• Jobs/Economy – Casey’s call (even though he’s no longer a drag on society)
• When they show a former 2008 Presidential Candidate – toast to the good run they had
• When they show a current 2008 Presidential Candidate - all drink except the first to point him/her out.
• When they show your congressman/woman
• Nukular – say “we’re all gonna die” and drink a shot of beer
• Standing Ovations –
  Republicans only – Democrats drink
  All stand – Repubs drink
  Democrats only - haha
• Terror
• Patriotism/American – Stand and salute and drink a shot of beer
• Bipartisanship – Group vote on drinking
• Election (referring to US or other country) – caucus on whether or not we should drink.
• Whenever George W smirks during a standing ovation, take turns drinking shots of beer until the audience sits down. Do it double time if his shoulders shake with silent laughter.
• Lightning Round – From 9:30 – 9:35 the entire group will take a shot on every 10th blink by Nancy Pelosi.
• George W uses a word no one in the group knows – 2 shots while searching for a dictionary (This actually happened last year...)
• Entitlement – Take a shot of beer poured by someone else
• Surrender / White Flag / Cut and Run – Democrats drink while being called cowards by the Republicans
• Tax Cuts – Republicans drink while protecting their wallets/purses from the Democrats in the room
• Mortgage / Sub-Prime – Homeowners drink
• W leaves the podium for the last time – stand up and toast to the next administration, which regardless of the 2008 result, will at least show occasional competence.

Weight Watchers Lasagna

...but it is soooo good! And it's super fun because the serving is HUGE so it's not some wimpy little 1/12 of the pan. A serving is 1/8th of the pan!! It was seriously the bomb.com

Lasagna w/ Meat Sauce
From The New Complete WW Cookbook (which is awesome.)

9 lasagna noodles (not the oven ready kind...IDK if they'd work, probably would, but I'm just telling you what the recipe told me.)
3 cloves garlic, minced (this is a Jamie substitution for fennel - not a big fennel fan)
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 lb lean ground beef or turkey burger
1 onion finely chopped (I use my sweet KA food processor and it's chopped so fine you could drink it. Not that you'd want to but...you know.)
1 red bell pepper
1 zucchini, chopped
2 15-oz containers of refrigerated marinara sauce
1 1/2 c fat free ricotta cheese
1/2 c part skim Mozz cheese (LOL - I used way more than this...oh well)
1/4 c grated Parm or Romano cheese

Directions:

1. Cook lasagna noodles according to package instructions. Drain & rinse and set aside.
2. In a skillet, heat olive oil and toast garlic until fragrant. Set aside.
3. Over med-high head, add beef, onion, bell pepper and zucchini. Cook, stirring occasionally until all pan juices evaporate and beef browns, about 10 mins. Stir in the marinara sauce and garlic. Bring to a boil (yes, that'll be messy...) Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered until slightly thickened, aobut 10 mins.
4. Preheat oven to 375. In a 9x13 inch baking dish, spread 1/4 of sauce on the bottom of the pan. Top w/ 3 noodles, 1/2 of the ricotta mixture, 1/4 of sauce. Repeat. Finish w/ sauce mixture and shredded cheese.
5. Cover w/ foil and bake 30 mins. Remove foil and finish baking for 20 more mins. Let stand 10 min before serving.

If you only use the 1/2 c of shredded cheese, it's 6 WW points for 1/8th of the pan. As I said... I was much closer to the 2 cup mark, but it's worth it to me. :) Enjoy!!

Peppermint Patty Brownies

I just had a little corner of these - OMG...they're so good!!! We're having Ebert family game night tonight at our house. On the menu - roasted potatoes, Cheeseburger Calzone and salad. Oh, and these bad boys..
Peppermint Patty Brownies

Ingredients
1 box brownie mix
1 big bag of York Peppermint Patties

Directions:
Prepare brownies as directed on box. Pour half of mixture into 9 in square pan, reserving about 2 cups of brownie mixture for later. Unwrap a bunch of peppermint patties (I can't remember how many it was - about 25 or so at least) and place evenly across batter. Pour the rest of the batter on top of this, and cover. Bake according to box - I baked mine about 35 min. It's also best to prepare according to the "fudgy" directions on the box if that's an option :)

Date Night/"Snow" Day

So, it's snowing in NC (sigh). It's coming down a little more now, they say it'll accumulate up to 3 inches...We're using it as a good excuse to stay in and have an at home Date Night, with homemade pizza, homemade beer (well, we're making it tonight, drinking Corona!) and a Chick Flick (Music and Lyrics) and a Scott movie (Ocean's 13)...

I made pizza dough tonight - with a recipe we fell in love w/ this summer. It's a little labor intensive, but soooo worth it! Plus, a good excuse to use my Kitchen Aid Mixer (no kneading!)

Whole Wheat Herb Pizza Dough
(Shamelessly pulled from Jenni's Kitchen blog - link in side toolbar)

1 package dry yeast
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1 1/2 cups warm water
2 1/2 to 2 3/4 cups all purpose flour, divided
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 tablespoons pizza seasoning
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
Cooking Spray

Dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water in a large bowl; let stand 5 minutes. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Add 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, whole-wheat flour, oil, garlic powder, pizza seasonings and salt to yeast mixture, stirring until well-blended. Turn dough out onto a floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic (about 10 minutes); add enough of remaining flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, to prevent dough from sticking to hands (dough will feel tacky).

Place dough in a large bowl coated with cooking spray, turning to coat top. Cover and let rise in a warm place (85°), free from drafts, 45 minutes or until doubled in size. (Press two fingers into dough. If indentation remains, the dough has risen enough.) Punch dough down; cover and let rest 5 minutes. Divide dough in half; roll each half into a 12-inch circle on a floured surface. Top and bake according to recipe directions.

Note: You can prepare this in a stand mixer using the dough hook. Add all the ingredients and let the hook knead the dough for approximately 5 minutes. Also, this dough may be frozen. Follow directions for kneading dough, and shape dough into 2 balls. Coat balls with cooking spray and place into a ziploc plastic freezer bag. Thaw overnight in a refrigerator. Cover and let rise in a warm place (85'), free from drafts' 1 1/2 hours or until doubled in size. (Press two fingers into dough. If Indentation remains, the dough has risen enough.) Shape as instructed.

By trial and error we've found for the crust we like (slightly crispy) we preheat heat the oven to 400F, bake the pizza dough for 5 minutes, then add our sauce, cheese, toppings and more cheese. Then, bake approximately 15 more minutes until the cheese and melted and just ever so slightly browned.

Here's a pic of Scott's foray at beer making:

Not for Kids Only Casserole

This is a favorite my mom used to make all the time growing up! Yummy!!

Not for Kids Only Casserole

1 lb ground beef or turkey
1/3 c onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp oregano
2 c elbow macoroni noodles, cooked. (we use wheat noodles & can't tell the difference)
1 can Campbell's Tomato Soup (condensed)
1 c cheddar cheese
1 c mozzarella cheese

Directions:
Brown ground turkey, onion, garlic & oregano until no longer pink. Boil noodles according to directions on box. Combine meat mixture and noodles and tomato soup in 9x13 baking dish. Top with cheese. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

Stuffed Peppers

They're in the oven right now, I thought maybe I'd blog to pass the time. I'm starving :)

Stuffed Peppers
1 lb ground beef (I use 7% fat ground turkey)
1 large onion, chopped
1 15 oz can tomato sauce, divided
1 1/4 c water, divided
1 envelope Good Seasoning Garlic & Herb Dressing & Recipe mix
1 cup instant brown rice, uncooked
4 large green peppers, or 5 smaller green peppers

Directions:
Brown meat with onion in large skillet over medium heat. Stir in 1 cup of tomato sauce, 1 cup of water & salad dressing mix. Bring to a boil, stir in rice & cover. Remove from heat and let stand 5 min.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut tops off peppers and remove seeds. Mix remaining sauce and 1/4 c water in the bottom of a 9 in square baking dish. Place peppers in baking dish. Spoon meat mixture into peppers and cover with foil.

Bake 35 to 40 min or until peppers are tender. Spoon sauce from bottom of dish over peppers just before serving.

Blink

What a cool book! It was especially fun to read because it's a "Scott" kind of book, so I kept telling him about it and we had some lively discussion. Before you all get scared thinking it's about computer programming, let me explain. Scott focuses on human affect and emotion, psychology and their relation to technology. I know, cool, right!?

One of the main ideas of this book is that often we know in an instant, but feel the need to back up our snap judgments with research and investigation, which can often change what our gut reaction was. He also says that oftentimes you can make a decision with less as opposed to more information. All of it is very counter-intuitive, but it definitely makes sense. And I doubt my summary makes any sense, but all I can say is this book was a very quick read, and really interesting. If you want to read more about it...

Up next - Love In The Time of Cholera. I can only cross my fingers I finish it this month!! :)

Hot Pockets

Another recipe from the Kids' cookbook - and it was really easy and good! As we were chowing down on these, Scott and I have already come up with some variations for next time we make them. They'll make excellent lunches this week too!

Homemade Hot Pockets
1 package refrigerated pizza dough
1/2 lb lean turkey, chopped
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 425. Spray 12 muffin cups w/ non stick cooking spray.
2. Unroll dough on flat surface and cut into 12 equal pieces (rectangles)
3. Divide turkey and cheese btwn dough pieces. Bring the corners of each dough piece into the center and press to close. Place seam down in the muffin pan.
4. Bake 10-12 min, until golden brown. Cool slightly before eating.

The variations we'll try next would be incorporating a vegetable (green peppers or broccoli chopped up), and a mini pizza themed one with shredded mozzarella and tomato sauce.

Cotton Song

This book was extra special, since it was written by Tom Bailey, my former writing professor at Susquehanna. Last year, I really loved his first novel, The Grace That Keeps This World. I really recommend it to anyone, it was absolutely fantastic.


Cotton Song was also a very intense novel, with a cast of very interesting and devoted characters. It was a very tough subject to read about - race violence and the KKK in Mississippi in the 1940's, but I think I ultimately learned a lot about a world I knew nothing about. It all starts with the lynching of Letisha Johnson, who was wrongly accused of drowning the child of the well-to-do family she worked for. Letisha leaves behind a 10 yr old daughter, Sally, who it is Baby Allen's charge to protect. It takes a lot of surprising and sometimes disturbing turns. I'm not gonna lie - if you're a prude, don't pick up this book bc there's a lot of, um, graphic & violent parts. But, I think in the end it all contributes to the plot and makes Cotton Song a really complicated and deep book about the Deep South during the 1940's and about doing what's right, and the price of progress... he's a really great writer. :)

I'm listening to him on NPR from a few years ago talking about TGTKTW.

Pizza Mac & Cheese

I was so intrigued when I saw this recipe - those of you who know me well know that I love Kraft Mac & Cheese... and though I'm all grown up and have expanded my horizons considerably since that "phase" (ie...vegetables & stuff) this recipe still hits the spot. Scott is also a big fan.

Pizza Mac & Cheese

1 can (8 oz.) pizza sauce, divided
1 pkg. (7-1/4 oz.) KRAFT Macaroni & Cheese Dinner, prepared as directed on package (I always half the butter to keep it healthy, you could also use Smart Balance for an even healthier option.)
1 lb. extra lean ground beef, cooked, divided (No surprise here, we always use turkey burger)
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 tsp. dried basil leaves
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 cup 2% milk low moisture Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

PREHEAT oven to 400°F. Remove and set aside 1/4 cup of the pizza sauce for later use. Combine prepared Dinner, the meat, the remaining pizza sauce, egg and seasonings.

SPOON evenly into 9-inch pie plate. Top with reserved 1/4 cup pizza sauce; sprinkle with cheese.

BAKE 15 min. Let stand 5 min. before serving.

OH, and the best part! It makes 4 VERY generous servings...

Yummy Granola Bars

Ok, not gonna lie. I got this recipe from my cousin's girlfriend's Kids' cookbook (go ahead, check my apostrophes, they're good), but they are an excellent semi-healthy snack :) Also enjoy the awesome picture I took.

Fruit & Oat Bars
1 c all purpose flour
1 c uncooked quick cooking oats
3/4 c brown sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/3 c margarine, melted
3/4 c fruit preserve. (I used strawberry and it's delish, but I bet apple would be even better bc it's very cinnamon-y)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 9 in square pan with non-stick spray.
2. Combine flour, oats, brown sugar, baking soda, salt & cinnamon in medium bowl; mix well. Add margarine, stir w/ fork until crumbly. Reserve 3/4 c crumb mixture for topping. Press remaining crumb mixture evenly into bottom of pan. Bake 5-7 mins or until lightly browned. Spread preserves on crust and sprinkle with reserved crumb mixture.
3. Bake 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool completely on wire rack. Make either 9 bigger squares, or 16 snack-sized squares.

In other news, Scott finally got Guitar Hero... woohoo! Smarty's enjoying the music, but every time Scott gets a note wrong she looks up like - hey, what was that! :)

A JOB!

Update for all of you following the Jamie's Job Search saga... I accepted a position today! It's on a contract basis with the option to go perm. It's with a small benefits outsourcing group, and I'll be doing a lot of similar things to what I did at Fidelity. I'm totally pumped to be employed. I have enjoyed my 2 months of laying around and not really working, but gah, it was boring.

NC State offered me a job as well, but um, it was not a very good offer and you know how it always works - when it rains, it pours, and my new employer just had a better offer :)

I'll furnish more details after I start - which is Monday morning! I'm so relieved and excited.

Jamie's Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Sometimes a girl just needs some buffalo! This was a "what do we have in the fridge" kind of night, and a burst of culinary genius. Yeah, I made it up.

Jamie's Buffalo Chicken Pizza

1 ref. pizza dough (I use Pillsbury)
1 lb chicken, cooked & cut into bite sized pieces
1/2 cup and 2 tbsp Franks Red Hot Sauce
3/4 c Ranch Dressing
2 cups shredded cheese (Mozz, Cheddar or Parm, or a mix of all 3.)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and spread out pizza dough in a pan or pizza stone. Bake for 8 minutes & remove.
2. Cut up chicken and combine with 1/2 cup of buffalo sauce. Simmer over low heat while you prepare the rest of the pizza.
3. In a bowl, combine Ranch and 2 tbsp Hot Sauce. Spread into a thin layer on top of the pizza dough. Then spread the chicken pieces & sauce over pizza. Top with cheese.
4. Bake for 10 more minutes, or until crust is lightly browned.