Culinary Conquests – Super Easy Thai Green Curry & Awesome Pasta

We love this dish.  I picked up my secret ingredient on one of my many trips to Trader Joe’s and it blew me away the first time that I made it.  Super tasty, a little spicy but not too much.  Check it out:

Step 1:  Cook chicken

Step 2:  Add chopped red & yellow peppers (optional if you can spare the time)

Step 3:  Add secret ingredient, heat through, serve over rice. 

Ok, not a conquest.  But it’s so tasty that I will probably never attempt to make green curry from scratch.  Try it—thank me later.

If you really want to act like you are cooking, try this pasta sauce.  I got lucky once when I happened to have all the ingredients on hand and cooked them together.  So tasty that it is now a regular meal in our house.  The two secret ingredients:  spicy chorizo and this sauce:

Step 1:  Cook chopped onion, mushroom, and 2 links of ground mexican chorizo sausage until sausage is cooked through.  (adding an yellow or red pepper is also tasty)

Step 2:  Add sauce, simmer for 5 minutes.  Serve over pasta of your choice. 

The sauce by itself is not all that flavorful--the chorizo is what brings it to life.  If you try it with something like ground beef, you will be disappointed.   

I love Trader Joe’s. 

When I grow up, I want to be a ……

I’ve always wanted to fill in this blank with even the smallest amount of conviction and/or passion.  Well, maybe I should start with a disclaimer:

I believe that, in general, work is not fun.  I’m pretty sure that this is why they refer to it as “work” and not “super happy fun time where you make lots of money.”  And I believe, that even in your most favorite job, you still would rather be sipping mojitos on the beach listening to the sound of waves roll up on the shore.  Ahhh….  Yeah, anyhow, my point is that I haven’t been looking for a career that will complete me as a person (I’m pretty complete already. J) or for a job that I will be skipping to every day.  I’ve been looking for a career that I can focus on and, in general, find interesting. 

After my company went south management-wise (my opinion, of course) and then decided to move south geographically, the question was even more on my mind than usual.  Yes, I have become a stay at home mom and I love my girls and my family but keeping my brain stimulated really makes me an easier person to live with.  I decided to do what I try to do with most of my life but DEFINITELY in the areas where I have no clue—pray and have that little mustard seed of faith that God will lead me.

Well, God didn’t “lead” me anywhere.  What he did was drop a part time work from home job in my lap and it is SUH-WEET.  I mean, I get to still spend the majority of my time with my adorable girls but I get the mental break/stimulation that I crave.  But, today, after a conversation with my boss, I totally felt my mind start to clear and I realized with, yes—conviction—that I have been and am currently in the industry of my choice.  I could care less about cars, computers, etc. but aviation?  Love it. 

So for now, I am just going to be happy that I can continue down this path and see where it leads.  FAA?  Consultant?  Lobbyist?  That part is still cloudy but I don’t mind.   For the first time in a while, I am excited about my job.   

The Adventures of St. Joseph

St. Joseph tends to be substituted as the third playmate around our house. He gets a lot of play time.  Sometimes, he just hangs out and plays:

He also has a lot of fun bouncing in the Princess Castle:

He even gets put in “time out”:

Ok, I think he has been taking some blame for Cecilia….just a hunch I that I have:

What a good sport!

Summer Hits of the 90’s

As I have mentioned before, I tend to listen to a lot of Pandora.  I have several different stations but I pretty much have it tuned to “Matt Maher Radio” all day, every day.  One day, a station suggestion appeared at the top of my screen that I couldn’t resist:  “Summer Hits of the 90’s.”  So, I tuned in.  It started out fun—a little Oasis, a little Dave Matthew’s Band—songs that reminded me of the second half of the 90’s i.e. my college days.  FUN TIMES!  But then it started shifting to the early 90’s and I realized something.  I realized that I really didn’t like high school.

Ok, it’s not that I have had great memories of high school.  Well, with the exception of my senior year which, for some reason, we spent an inordinary amount of time at Waffle House and rolling down the sled riding hill in the park—hey, nobody ever said that I was “cool.”.  But outside of the total creep I dated most of high school, I didn’t have particularly bad memories either.  It was weird how hearing those songs could stir up emotions that I haven’t felt since those vulnerable teenage years.  Then I realized that it really wasn’t high school that I didn’t like, it was being a teenager. 

I had a nun for religion my freshman year that said something to the effect of “I know that everybody says that this is the time of your life but it’s not.  Being a teenager is hard and not fun.”  I thought that she was a little crazy at the time but it turns out that she was right—for me, anyhow.  (I know people who look back on their high school days like I do my college days….crazy people.)  So, I figure that I have approximately 12 years to prepare my girls to deal with the emotional rollercoasters of not being good enough, smart enough, skinny enough, athletic enough, pretty enough, rich enough….the list goes on.  I just hope that I can give them a healthy enough outlook on themselves and life that, someday, when they listen to Summer Hits of the 20’s (2020’s that is), they can listen and smile.

Who knew that Pandora could be so inspiring? 

My Husband's Post

So, Joe decided that I needed to update my blog to which I said, “I know, but I don’t know what to write about.”  He then proceeded to tell me what to write about so here we go!

1.      The Basement:    

For whatever reason, recently, our house decided to fall apart all at once.  And, being a home, it is never what you anticipate.  It’s the things that you don’t think you will have any problem with that start falling apart.  Last April, we had a small backup from our storm drain that had me spending much of the night with the shop-vac.  Since this had never happened before, we hoped it was a fluke and would not happen again….ha, ha.  Joke was on us.  This is a picture of our basement about a month after that:

Note:  Not near the drain.

                                             

We had to have somebody come in and remove drywall, carpeting, etc. to ensure that we didn’t get any mold.  The good news—it’s finally rebuilt.  Hurray!  So, the good—it looks better than it did before the flood and we found an efficient, reasonably priced contractor.

Oh, and our air conditioner is working which is fantastic since it is so hot outside….

2.      Our Awesome Girls:

Yeah, they’re cute and growing.  And nothing says cute like some pictures, or in this case, small collages of pictures:

3.      My Awesome Husband:

Like, I said, it was his idea.  J  He is great though and I love him more every day.  I remember praying for the man that I would marry when I was single.  Have you ever noticed how God blindsides you with the unexpected?  Joe has completely blown away everything that I ever could have asked for in a husband.  And he is a FANTASTIC father.  Our girls LOVE, LOVE, LOVE him!  It is so adorable and I love to watch it.  What’s he doing while I write this blog?  He’s at the grocery store…rest my case.  J

4.      My 5K:

Ok, so now I take over.  I ran a 5K on the 4^th of July with some friends.  It was fun and I actually ran it is 24 minutes which is better than I anticipated.  I am aiming to do a 10K next at the end of August.  If I can motivate myself, I may even try the Detroit ½ marathon in October.  You know, before I go into hibernation for the winter.  I hate running in the cold, ice, snow, etc. 

5.      I thought that this was a good post from one of the blogs I read regularly.  Check it out:

http://badcatholicblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/pictures-of-naked-women.html

My Pandora

So, one of the many advantages to working from home is that I get to stream Pandora guilt free while I work.  I have mostly been listening to my "Matt Maher" station and every once in a while, I hear a song that I fall in love with and download it to play repeatedly on my ipod.  Here are my two new faves:

Hillsong is awesome.  This one is getting added to my "Adoration" play list:

I love Audrey Assad's music and her voice is BEAUTIFUL:

Enjoy!

Summer Time is Awesome

I haven’t posted in a while—I have no excuse other than, lately, one day seems to run into another.  When I started working part time, I thought that I had a lot more free time on my hands.  As it turns out, taking care of the two munchkins all day long really is a full time job!  Well, more than full time because you have to consider all of the work that you do while they are asleep….  But I wouldn’t trade it.  I also wouldn’t trade working part time because it keeps me sane.  So, quickly, here are the latest highlights:

We have been spending the summer playing—at the pool, at the park, and at play group, taking adventures to Dairy Queen, etc.  

Cecilia has forced made her transition to a “big bed.”  No, not your typical toddler bed—she is sleeping like the princess that she is in a giant queen bed.  And since she has learned to easily climb in and out of her crib (as of yesterday), I can’t even keep her caged during “quiet time.”  And she is a little chatterbox now though you wouldn’t believe me if you met her because she clams up around strangers. 

Anna has started crawling and is quickly picking up speed.  Just ask Cecilia—Anna is always chasing her and it is getting increasingly difficult to stay away!  She started pulling herself and standing and is determined to climb the stairs.  She is still a total joy—such a happy, smiley baby—but she is learning to make herself be heard.  Oh, and she loves power cords.

And, as of this week, our basement is getting fixed!  Needless to say, we have gone with painting the floor versus carpeting just in case the city storm drain decides to back up into our basement again.  

And, I will be running my first 5k in 3.5 years this Monday.  My goal:  survive and have fun!  

Happy Summer!