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2013-52 Week 7

Alright, 2013 has not been a fun year so far health-wise. The latest malady has been a five day long tension headache in my right temple that started during a run on Wednesday and has been coming and going the entire time. It started to show some signs of weakening today, but was generally pretty unpleasant for most of the last few days. It is making it a little hard to write at the moment, and certainly kept me from working on things during the past week, but I’m sure I have some things to cover now.

Is it bad that I’m looking forward to the end of my English class simply so I can speak more freely about it (I’ll give you a hint, it’s not bad for me). I put up a little over eleven hundred more words this week, and I promise that all the research I did Saturday on suicide was for the essay I was writing. We had to pick a critical thinking topic and write a letter about it, and I picked the topic “Whether we should make the Golden Gate Bridge Suicide-Proof.” Long story short, after examining the pros and cons, I maintained my original evaluation that there is no such thing as “Suicide-proof” and that the problem needs to be addressed at the social level more than the structural one.

Oh, right, Hallmark . . . er, Valentine’s day was Thursday. Jess and I took it off this year, although we did go out for late night milkshakes after the Pepperoni Pizza Burgers tried to do us in. While not directly related, we did have a date day on Sunday, going down to Newport Beach, then to Downtown Disney, and finally dinner at Chevy’s in Burbank. Quick aside, apparently a ton of people were using Saturday as a make-up Valentine’s day, we kept hearing about all these places that were swamped. Despite wanting Chevy’s salsa and corn cake, Jess was almost denied as when we arrived we were told there would be a 45 minute wait, a party of eighty (that’s right, 80) was showing up at any minute. I originally didn’t want to wait that long, but after visiting one of the few remaining Barnes and Nobles next door and then fortifying ourselves with the brownie I had gotten from a bakery earlier, we went back in to wait the final twenty minutes. The party hadn’t shown up yet and the new greeter sat us immediately. The party started arriving right after they took our order, it wound up being the Saugus cheer and/or dance team. They had their own area set up, so it didn’t really bother us, but we did get to see an endless parade of sparkles and bedazzling head past us for about half an hour.

So outside of a nice couple hour visit with my parents on Friday night so Jess could pick up something for one of her projects, a long run on Saturday night and a busy day Sunday, I curtailed my activities for the rest of the week trying to get rid of the headache that was plaguing me. Like I said before, it’s starting to ease a bit, but this easily holds the record for longest headache I’ve ever had. Hopefully all will return to normal for next week.

Weight: 229 Loss: 1 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 96.2 miles (+18 miles) Last year-to-date: 23.2 miles – Words-to-date: 11512 (+1703)

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By Matt
February 18, 2013

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Recipe #13: Pepperoni Pizza Burger

Pepperoni Pizza Burgers

Pepperoni Burger

Pepperoni Burger

I originally found this on ThePioneerWoman’s site. I have followed her blog for years now, mostly because I love her recipes. Very simple, basic ingredients, and the way she blogs about them makes them easy to follow. I think it’s the pictures. Lovely for when you reach that, “Is it supposed to look like that??” moment. When I saw this one a few months ago, I thought it would be perfect “Man Food” for Matt sometime.

True to her blog, this recipe was easy to make and came together quickly. Side note, I have a pet peeve with recipes. I hate when they say “While the such and such is browning, do this” and the timing does not add up at all and you are either rushing to finish or burning something. This is why I think all Rachel Ray “30 Minute Meals” are a lie. I have never had that problem with The Pioneer Woman’s recipes. The timing is always pretty spot on.

Now, have you ever done something, knowing that you shouldn’t be doing it? Even while you are in the middle of doing it? I did that here. I over-mixed the meat. Any time you are making something that requires mixing ground meat, if you over mix it, it will make it dense and tough (much like over mixing bread). I knew making this I was overmixing, yet I kept going. The result was a dense burger. I am convinced, however, that the texture was not entirely my fault. I think the sausage, while flavorful, by nature makes the burger heavier and denser than plain ground beef.  So heavy in fact, Matt determined he could not run with it on his stomach and I think we finished a 2 liter of 7-up that night between the two of us. I’m pretty sure I’m still digesting it.

And while it tasted good, much like a pepperoni pizza, it was neither Matt’s nor my preferred conveyance for either a pizza or a burger, or sausage for that matter. I won’t be making this particular recipe again….

I wonder if Matt bought more Tums…

Posted in 100 New Recipes, Jess General.

By Jessica
February 15, 2013

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Recipe #11: “Melt in your mouth chicken” and Recipe #12: Sausage Bites

Hey all! I’m still behind on blogging these things, partly because I haven’t had much to say on either of these recipes so I kept procrastinating thinking something would come to me. I also wanted to avoid doubling up recipe posts, but at this point it’s either double up or nothing, so here we go:

Recipe #11:

“Melt in your mouth” chicken

IMG_20130131_193336

Now this recipe is “new to me”. It’s a standard “back of the box/bottle” recipe, so it’s been around for years, I had just never made it. It sounded good to Matt, so we tried it. You coat the chicken in mayo, Parmesan cheese, and seasoning, then bake it. I used chicken thighs instead breasts because they are cheaper and taste better (in my opinion). Matt really liked this recipe, and it was good, my strike against it is that I have a similar recipe that I like much more (and that has more flavor) called “Heroin Chicken” (because “one bite and you’re addicted”). Plus since you use butter instead of mayo I can pretend it’s healthier. 😉

Recipe #12:

Valerie Bertinelli’s Seriously Good Sausage Bites

SAMSUNG

This is another recipe that I swear was “back of a box”, but they attribute it to Valerie Bertinelli so who am I to argue if Bisquick won’t. 🙂 I made these for Super Bowl and they were yummy!! I used my new flavor obsession, Sriracha, instead of tabasco, SO GOOD! I ate about 15 before the game even started. They weren’t the best thing I brought that day (they couldn’t really compete with bacon wrapped little smokies and this Jalepeno Popper Dip that I am addicted to eating.) I had over-mixed the dough so they were a little on the tough side, plus being warmed (aka: reheated) twice played with the texture even more. Straight out of the oven (when I downed my first 10…that was “breakfast”) they were amazing! I would make these again for any “Big Game” or game night at our place, I probably wouldn’t travel with them though. So, to summarize: Don’t over-mix your dough, use Sriracha, eat them fresh, prepare to eat 20 in one sitting.

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By Jessica
February 14, 2013

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2013-52 Week 6

I guess that was another benefit of writing everyday, I only really had to deal with writer’s block for a day or two at a time. Now I have to deal with week-long writer’s block. My outside writing has picked up, however, so I don’t have to rely on these posts for my complete writing output anymore. I contemplated copying all of my writing items here, but decided not to bore everyone with them, especially since some of them require some context. Suffice it to say that I added about one thousand words over an assignment and a letter, and I have two more assignments this week.

I haven’t cleaned off the phone camera in a few weeks, so we’ll start there. I know the internet can’t get enough cats, so I’ll spend a minute talking about Gatsby. OUr cat is . . . how do you say . . . special. Easily one of the most social cats I’ve ever had, he’s actually developed into something of a lap cat (if I was sitting in my normal spot right now rather than writing at the kitchen table, he’d be sitting across my forearms right now), and is the second cat I’ve ever had to play fetch on a regular basis. He’s also what I gather is called a “cave” cat; he likes to hide in boxes and stalk things from under the table. Thus, one of his favorite pastimes is to “help” us make the bed. The minute he hears us take the old sheets off, he runs in the room and jumps on the bed. We have to get the fitted sheet down quickly before he gets there, and then we just put everything else over him. He has a blast under the covers for a few minutes (and we tease him a bit), and every time we look under the blankets we get a look like this:

Gatsby sheets

Decidedly shorter story for my second picture. I was in Target picking up some supplies, when Jess was going through the followup to my second January illness, and I was checking the Electronics clearance in the back of the store when I walked out through the Book section. I did a double take at what I saw next:

Kids 50 Shades

Please, please tell me they’re not marketing 50 Shades of Grey to kids. Thankfully the next time through a week later they had rectified their mistaken labeling.

Finally (for the pictures at least), now that I’ve been able to run on a regular basis again in February I can monitor the progress on the new turf field next the Student Rec Center. They had flattened the area last I saw, but they’ve made giant leaps and bounds since then. Last week I saw this:

FieldOne

I couldn’t quite determine how they were setting things up, though I was pretty sure it wasn’t a football field. Coming back this morning and looking out, things were starting to make sense:

FieldTwo

Well, I think that’s it for this week. You have my permission to use the extra time you would have spent reading anything else I might have written for something fun.

Weight: 229 Loss: 1 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 78.2 miles (+23 miles) Last year-to-date: 23.2 miles – Words-to-date: 9809 (+1476)

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By Matt
February 11, 2013

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Recipe #9: Skillet Cookie

I have always had this weird quirk to my eating habits. I have very distinct cycles that last about 3 months. For 3 months, I will be starving all the time, just always hungry. I will always eat when I’m hungry, figuring my body knows what it wants better than I do. First, I will have some water or tea to make sure I’m not thirsty or maybe I’m simply bored (chewing gum usually solves that problem), but I’m usually actually hungry. Then for 3 months I will eat very little and be perfectly happy. (This does not result in a fabulous relationship between the scale and I.)

Along with this cycle I also have certain cravings that last the same 3 month period. This past summer was tomatoes. I ate probably my weight in cherry tomatoes. Before that it was comfort foods (pot pie, mac and cheese, bread). Awhile back it was Mediterranean food, especially tzatziki. It’s not that I need to have it, I just can always eat it. It always sounds so good and is the near constant answer to “What do you want for dinner?” Then it will simply stop one day, the mood will simply leave and move on to the next random craving.

This time around is annoying. I have a sweet tooth. I do enjoy sweet treats and desserts, and there is always room for ice cream. Normally though, I can easily walk away from most sweets (homemade chocolate chip cookies are an exception, with those I cannot be trusted.) This is why the candy bowl is on my desk at work. It is there for everyone else to enjoy and I do not have a problem with it. People frequently ask how I can have it on my desk without constantly eating it, my answer is “Because I’m a salty person. If those were french fries it would be entirely different.” Now? Now I’m having a hard time keeping my hand from taking a Kiss or two, or M&M’s, or Snickers. Grocery shopping, somehow Oreos keep finding their way into my cart. For dinner the other night, seriously I just wanted to eat S’mores. (So I did.)

This next recipe was born out of this annoying (yet so delicious) place I am at. And it was so very good!

Skillet Cookie

IMG_20130127_210952

And yes, “traditionally” this should have ice cream on top but all we had in the freezer was chocolate chip cookie dough flavor and that was more “meta” than I was feeling that night. 🙂

If you have ever been to BJ’s Brewhouse, you know that this is a take on their Pizookie. If you haven’t been, then why not?! A Pizookie is a “Pizza-Cookie”, they put cookie dough in a small deep-dish pizza pan and cook it until about halfway done. Crunchy on the outside, gooey in the middle, it is seriously perfect.

I’m so happy that this was recipe #9, 9 and its multiples being my favorite numbers. This was so, so good. It looks a bit puffy in the picture but that is because under that lovely cookie crust is pure gooey goodness.

This recipe is GREAT to keep around. 1 ) It is easy. Don’t you hate it when you have a recipe that says “prep time 30 minutes” and 2 hours later you’re still hungry? Not so here! It says 8 minutes and it means 8 minutes. The majority of that is waiting for the pan to cool down a bit before adding the egg. It’s actually easier than making actual cookies

2) It uses things 98% of people have in their pantry and it’s one dish, no extra bowls or mixers to clean.

3)  It’s a great family style dessert! Sadly, this was just for Matt and I so we couldn’t finish it (well, knew we shouldn’t finish it might be more accurate), but next time I have friends over, this will be my go-to dessert!

The only reason I have not made this again already is that I know how much would be wasted on just Matt and I and it is just too good to waste. Trust me though, this has been a nearly constant fight each night with my sweet tooth. . .

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By Jessica
February 5, 2013

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Recipe #10 Rosemary Olive Oil Bread

I am so behind on blogging! The problem is I normally write the bulk of these blogs at work and then finish them at home. For some odd reason, with the semester starting and my application deadline a week away, they are actually expecting me to do my job instead of blog. For example, not that you can tell, but there was about a three hour delay between those two sentences because of that very problem.

If it’s too crazy to write at work, one would assume I would write at home. Except that on truly crazy days, after work is done, dinner is made, and chores du jour are completed, my brain does this funny thing where it shuts off and I cannot think of anything to write. . . Hopefully I can get caught up a bit now.

Two weeks ago:

You know that point where you have a ton of stuff to do and it’s just all so overwhelming that you don’t know where to start so you just decide to give up and go take a nap? That’s where I was two weeks ago. Sometimes I nap, and other times I bake. Baking is entirely a control issue for me. When I feel out of control in life, I know that I can go into the kitchen and throw ingredients together and get cookies. (True story, when I got married and finally had “my own kitchen” pretty much the first decision I made was that I must have all ingredients to make chocolate chip cookies on hand at all times. It’s a rule I follow closely.) Then at least I can control something.

So the other night, despite everything else I should have/needed to do, I decided instead I would bake bread….

Rosemary Olive Oil Bread

IMG_20130127_205859

I LOVE bread. To a fault. It and french fries are my weakness. I don’t have to be hungry to mindlessly eat it, in fact I can be full but still not resist just a little bit more. It’s a problem. Baking bread isn’t really that hard either, it simply takes time. I’m a multi-tasker (which really means I’m mildly ADD) so I don’t mind having it proof in the background while I do other tasks.

Several of our friends love to go to Macaroni Grill. Personally, I don’t care for it all that much. I haven’t found a dish I really like or want to pay the money for. The bread however, I can eat a loaf by myself, no problem. Maybe 1 1/2 if I really wanted to. That rosemary bread with the balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and cracked pepper? Mmmm (Honestly, I skip the oil half the time, perfectly happy with just the vinegar!) Now, on Pinterest, the pin claims “Identical to Macaroni Grill!” while the blog, A Hint of Honey, (who I will now refer to as “Honey”) makes no such claim. Do you know why? Because it’s not. Sure the flavors are there, but it’s a different texture certainly. Not Honey’s fault at all, her recipe is great, but whoever added that tidbit to the pin set me up for disappointment.

I get the impression that Honey is a very organic, healthy eater. Her recipe called for white whole wheat flour and raw cane sugar. Neither of which are in my pantry. I did have simple whole wheat flour though and used that. That was probably what bugged me the most about this bread. I love whole grain bread and whole wheat, but like most things they have their place, and for me this isn’t it. I would try this recipe one more time using just AP flour (maybe with a mixture of bread flour.) It was the whole wheat flavor that really did kill it for me.

Not wanting to eat calories I did not fully enjoy, the majority of the loaf has been made into breadcrumbs for future recipes…

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By Jessica
February 5, 2013

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2013-52 Week 5

I had something else I was going to talk about, I know I did. Hopefully I’ll think of it before the end of the post. Until then, however, since we wrapped the month of January already, I suppose it is time to go review some resolutions. If you didn’t read the Finale of my 2012-366 blog, below are my five New Year’s resolutions for 2013, along with a brief update on how I’m doing with them.

1) One blog post (longer) every week this year – I’m doing well enough getting these guys up, but I will admit that I’m basically just blogging once a week now rather than contributing things over the course of the week and editing them together. There’s still time to evolve the format, but that’s just the way it is for now. – On Track.

2) Lose at least 20 pounds – This is the resolution that took the biggest hit due to me being sick a couple times in January, but it has started trending the right way in the last week with a big uptick in mileage preparing for the LA Marathon and eating a little better (excluding the Super Bowl party yesterday). With a lot of running anticipated in February, I look to be ahead on this one by the next time I check in. – Behind.
Current Loss: 1 lb – On pace loss: 1.6 lbs

3) Run 400 miles. – Despite missing a week due to being ill, consistently running the other days has put me in a good position so far this year. The advantage of having an early race to prepare for (LA in March) has put me in a good position to reach my goal. The numbers at the end of this paragraph are only for January, but add in the fact that I put in a ten mile run on Saturday and things are looking good. What isn’t looking good is how badly I deluded myself last year when I had only completed a little over ten miles in January and thought I had a shot at 600 miles for the year. Ouch. – Ahead.
Current Mileage (January): 42.2 – On pace mileage: 33.33

4) Write an average of 500 words a day – As I mentioned in the blogging resolution, I’ve been kind of slacking on the writing aspect. It has probably gotten past the point where I can claim a hangover from last year’s blog-a-day, so I suppose I should get my butt in gear. As I’ve mentioned in past posts, the class I’m taking this semester should help, but I also really want to start on my personal projects. Seems like as good a time as any to buckle down and get started. Totals at the end of the paragraph are for January, just like the running paragraph. – Behind.
Current Word Count (January): 7283 – On pace word count: 15500

5) Read a book a month – Despite the fact that I’m currently reading a very good book (“The Signal and the Noise” by Nate Silver) and am very excited to start my next one (“The Fifth Assassin” by Brad Meltzer), I haven’t prioritized this one like I should. At least it is still early and I can change that. – Behind.

Let’s see, what else is there? Ah, I think I do have some quick hits:

– In the first two weeks of my writing class, the only assignment was the aforementioned (last week) bio and interests. Just got the assignment for week 3, and it is participating in the class forum on Moodle. I see we are not yet to the point of Rocket Surgery.

– My second class teaching, however, could not have gone much better, at least on my end. Aside from feeling one hundred percent better, there was good interaction, my demonstrations landed well, and everyone seemed to get it. Now to only keep it up for thirteen more weeks.

– Spring is on the way (I actually didn’t check on the groundhog this year, I’m going to assume it’s coming anyway), and with it, my favorite annual running event. That’s right, Ragnar So Cal! I checked the early maps and the route goes by Hodad’s again! And there are (so far) no eleven plus mile runs, the longest so far is a 9.4! Maybe I should stop using so many exclamation points?! Ooh, interrobang! Sorry, sorry, I’m done. Seriously, this will be my fourth year participating, and I love it every time out.

– Speaking of running, I’m (belatedly) ramping up my distance so I feel somewhat comfortable at the LA Marathon. I’m also getting back into karate after being out sick, and those two events converged into quite a day on Saturday, with two hours of karate class in the morning and two hours of running in the early afternoon. I intentionally gave myself a mental challenge on the run, with ten laps of Chatsworth High School (interestingly enough almost exactly a mile around the perimeter, although off by just enough – between .95 and .97 miles to be exact – to shift the mile marker by about a hundred feet every lap. It forced me to add a bit of a tail onto the end to get to ten miles . . . well, you can see for yourself.

Chatsworth Laps

I say it was a mental challenge and I nearly failed it several times, particularly in miles four through eight. Thankfully I implemented the run/walk program I plan to use in the marathon, and it served me well to get me some breaks when I needed them.

– How about that Super Bow . . . er, Big Game, huh? Without a significant investment in either team and a slight preference for the 49ers, that was a heck of a game to watch and at least the attempted comeback made things interesting. One thing I noticed during the halftime show (what? I was at a party where the women slightly outnumbered the guys) was the definite women power theme (there were no men on the stage at all, not singing, dancing, or banding, I mean, playing instruments) which I thought contrasted weirdly with the opposing scantly clad theme. Some of the commercials were kind of funny too, although they were largely forgettable. I will say the gravitas of the “farmers” commercial made us all stop and pay attention while it was on, and the Clydesdale commercial made several people misty.

All right, I think I’m done for now. Have a great week!

Weight: 229 Loss: 1 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 55.2 miles (+19 miles) Last year-to-date: 13.5 miles – Words-to-date: 8333 (+1050)

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By Matt
February 4, 2013

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2013-52 Week 4

Well, that was unpleasant.

There is some argument as to whether I had a low level flu or fairly nasty cold, but either way it lasted from early onset Tuesday until finally clearing Sunday afternoon. I wound up going home from work Wednesday at lunch and not going back the rest of the week. The rainy weather wasn’t much help on the one day that I had to make an appearance since I had to teach my first class on Friday, and the combination of sick, Dayquil, and rain left me sweating pretty profusely while talking somewhat fast busting through the syllabus and first chapter. I let them know that I had something and this wasn’t the norm, it certainly must have been an experience for them.

Thankfully it cleared up Sunday and I was able to get ready for the new week. Since I was out of commission most of last week, this might actually be a shorter post, as I don’t have all that much interesting to update on. Even the one interesting thing I had scheduled for last week I had to cancel on, which really sucked because I had been looking forward to it for a couple months. One of my favorite authors released his latest book on the 15th, and he came out to Los Angeles for a book launch last Friday. I had it on my calendar, but as the week wore on it became more and more evident that I wasn’t going to make it, although I had entertained the possibility of going all the way up until the “cold sweat” teaching on Friday afternoon. I’m still looking forward to reading the book (Brad Meltzer’s “The Fifth Assassin”) and highly recommend any of his books to you, although if you want to read “The Fifth Assassin” I recommend you pick up his last book, “The Inner Circle” first, as some of the characters carry over (and, of course, because it’s good). His genre is Suspense-Thriller with historical underpinnings, kind of like a Dan Brown (“The Davinci Code”) who actually does his research. Also, if TV is more your thing, go check out his TV series Brad Meltzer’s Decoded (repeats are on quite frequently on History Channel or H2), which delves into the fantastic back stories and grey areas of many of history’s greatest mysteries (huh, I wonder if that’s how they pitched the network).

Since the semester started last week, it was time to start both teaching (addressed above) and studenting . . . er, learning. In the continuing effort not to have to pay a couple hundred dollars for the on-campus gym and get some usage out of my fee waiver benefit, I once again enrolled in a class this semester. Rather than rejoining the after-school Faculty and Staff fitness program, which is good since I would have missed the first week anyway, I decided to try an online class so I could better fit it into my schedule. I, of course, decided this last minute, so I my options were limited (although it wasn’t that bad, there were probably a dozen classes I could have taken). I settled upon a junior-level English class, titled Intermediate Expository Writing. Boom, triple threat, keep my gym eligibility, keep my time flexibility, and contribute word count to my writing resolution. The professor didn’t get in touch with us until the first day of the semester, since communicating with the students beforehand was apparently against the rules of the union, so I didn’t get to see the syllabus until then. Reading through it revealed nothing overly challenging, although I am amused by the fact that I’m writing two practice essays for a test that I took, and passed, thirteen years ago. Our assignment for the first two weeks was to setup our online profile for the class, writing two to three hundred words about ourselves and our goals. The assignment was to be concise, but I actually found myself struggling to find things to put into the profile, as the assignment was particularly generic. Eventually I settled on the following and, after proofreading it (and catching a decent mistake, left out the “in a” in “in a particular hurry” – is it just me or “in a” in “in a” kind of awesome?), wound up posting the following. After contributing three academic interests (programming, data mining, databases) and three personal interests (running, sports, reading) in the appropriate box and finding a picture of myself on Facebook that didn’t feature anyone else or where I was wearing my sunglasses (the latter a personal restriction), my profile was set up and ready to go.

I am an IT worker and Computer Science instructor and I enjoy writing in my free time. I want to refine my skills in all types of written communication and it has been too long since I have done any expository work. I recently completed a yearlong project where I wrote a blog post every day, which came out to 172,245 words over the course of the year. I work on campus as an Information Technology consultant, mainly as a database guru but also working on servers and desktop machines. I do not, sadly, have anything to do with Moodle or servicing personal computers, so I cannot address any problems you may have with those technologies. Sorry! I do, however, also teach one Computer Science class on campus and thoroughly enjoy that.

My goals are pretty wide and far ranging. As stated above, my main goal for this class is to practice my expository writing and pick up any tips and tricks I might be able to find along the way. My other short term goal is to maintain access to the new Student Recreation Center so I can run on the indoor track, but I’ve already accomplished that by being here. My career goal is to transition out of IT into teaching full-time over the long run, although I am not in a particular hurry as I like both jobs. Outside of those immediate and long term goals, well I suppose I can’t get too deep in a couple hundred words.

Returning to work today was interesting, since between a vacation day and being sick I was only there for a day and a half last week. With one of the other techs on a cruise and yet another sick, thankfully it wasn’t a terrible Monday and I was able to ease back into things. Sort of like I’m easing back into this blog. I’ll see you next week with the first resolution update and the first full month of 2013 under our belts.

Weight: 230 Loss: 0 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 36.2 miles (+3 miles) Last year-to-date: 8.5 miles – Words-to-date: 7283 (+1113)

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By Matt
January 28, 2013

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A Crappy Week and Recipe #8: Greek Quinoa Salad

This post is less about food and more about me whining….

This week has sucked. Nothing totally horrible has happened, but just a bunch of annoying things (like our fridge being left open) followed by one really, really annoying thing. First off, Sunday I was cleaning up a broken picture frame and sliced open my finger on a piece of glass. Not wanting to figure out if I needed stitches and how they would do stitches on a knuckle, I just patched it up best I could. Now because it’s on a knuckle, it kept reopening which was, you know, “unpleasant”. Not to mention it was my right middle finger knuckle so I couldn’t/shouldn’t bend it, this resulted in my flipping people off any time I tried to grab anything. It’s healing now, but I’m pretty sure it’ll scar, there goes my hand modeling career.

Secondly, Matt has been sick with a flu all week, I have been feeling crappy too. This is why I get the flu shot.You may still get the flu, but if you do, it is significantly less. I have felt crappy, that “Not crappy enough to miss work. Crappy enough to not want to do anything else because all your energy went to work.”  I got off easy. Matt’s missed 2.5 days of work, I missed 1, mostly because my boss told me to so I could rest (I apparently was pale and her inner “mother hen” kicked in) and so I could take care of him. So, in my opinion, get the flu shot.

And the final blow this week…My phone died. The pins in the charging port somehow were bent and there was no fixing it. I lost everything; contacts, old texts I had saved, and my photos that for some reason had started saving to the phone instead of the memory card. I had not backed up anything. Next time, I will sync everything to Google. I learned the hard way.

Me, this time last year –

“Really Matt. I don’t need a smart phone. I don’t play with mine as much as you do. I don’t even call people. I just need something that texts easily. Really I don’t need anything fancy”

Me, yesterday –

“My phone?!?! NOOOOOO! Not my phone! Why God, Why?! What do you mean Sprint can’t fix it?! My life is on there. I can’t go back to the old phone. I have come to far to go back. I needs it!!!”

How a year changes you. I admit, not really for the better, but the truth is I am a convert. I “need” my smart phone now. Whether for email or texting, working out of the office, reading at the gym, taking photos (I haven’t touched my actual camera in months) and videos, couponing (JoAnn’s app, brilliant!), and yes, killing time on pinterest and facebook. . .Okay, okay and the occasional angry bird. . . I have become dependent upon my phone.

Did you notice something missing in there? Phone calls maybe? Yes, because that is my least favorite aspect of my phone. I HATE talking on the phone. There are a couple reasons. First, I talk on the phone all day at work, it’s the bulk of my in office tasks. Second, I suffer from some hearing loss, it normally doesn’t both me unless we are in a crowded/loud place, but it can be hard for me to make things out over a cell phone since things are more muffled and I can’t look at the person talking. I just much prefer to speak in text based format or face-to-face.

So yes, I am hurting with my first world problem. I am using Matt’s old phone until I can save up to buy a new one. Which sounds so spoiled, and it is, but I hate Matt’s old phone. I never liked using it when it was his current phone. Again, I’m whiny and spoiled, I should be thankful I even had a phone let alone a back up phone to use in the meantime. Loosing the pictures though, that stung. I think I loved that phone as a camera more than anything else.

Anyway, enough whining and on to something that went right this week. . . Thursday’s lunch.

Green Quinoa Salad
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Behold, the last picture my phone took…::sigh::

Do you like our fancy work plates? 🙂

This recipe comes from Bobby Flay. He has a new web series called Bobby Flay Fit. It’s very simple and, outside of cooking the quinoa, came together in about 10 minutes. It was a perfect lunch with lots of fresh veggies. Personally, I don’t care for olives, so I left those out. The peppers too, which would have been yummy, I was just cheap. It was still delicious!! It was so good and looked so pretty, my boss asked for a bite and then immediately asked for the recipe. She loves dishes like this and has a niece who is vegan and this is something they can both enjoy by simply removing the feta. It would be a perfect summer potluck salad.

Posted in 100 New Recipes, Jess General. Tagged with , , , , , , .

By Jessica
January 25, 2013

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Recipe #7: Sloppy Joes

Hey! I’m still around. Last week was a little crazy and that meant that dinners were leftovers, sandwiches, and takeout.

The semester started this week and Spring is notorious for being my bad semester. I have applications and admissions, plus graduations, on top of my other standard responsibilities. In other words, this is where this really does become a “challenge”. Not helping is that Matt and I came down with some virus. Matt has it worse than I do, I’m not sure if that is because I got a flu shot or not, or maybe it’s just holding off long enough so that Matt can recover before taking care of me. Either way right now I am counting my blessings. Although, despite all the business, I have been trying to stick to my meal planning.

Before I could make dinner Tuesday night though, we had a bit of excitement . We came home, and did our normal routine; threw lunch dishes into the sink, hung up our jackets, and headed back into the bedroom to take off shoes. While in the back we hear the familiar “Ding, ding, ding” of our refrigerator door begin ajar.
“Tell me you put something in the fridge just now.”
“No, did you?”
“No.”
Our fridge had been left ajar all day. It’s a french door, and if you open the left side and don’t push hard enough, it doesn’t quiet close. The thermometer inside read “65”. Well, crap. And so began the game of “it’s probably okay?”. The French do not refrigerate hard cheeses and they are aged so those are fine, the cream cheese not so much. Things like that.  Most of what got throw out was dairy based, leftovers, or was in the door. I used my various cooking thermometers to take temperatures. Thankfully, the ground beef I was planning to use for dinner was in the bottom drawer, I checked with my probe thermometer and it was still within safe temperatures. Our favorite carnitas, sadly did not pass the test. After a trip to Trader Joes to replace the lunch items we lost, I finally could start dinner was about a hour later than I intended. Thankfully, it was worth it

Sloppy Joes

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This was another Mario Batali recipe and I LOVED this one. First of all, it had a sweet story behind it in that it is not entirely Mario Batali’s recipe. It was originally his son’s, he came up with to surprise his dad. Smart kid. His dad did adapt it slightly though for this version. Secondly, it was insanely simple and delicious, and it had just the right amount of heat. The filling is just onion, jalapeno, ground beef, tomato paste, and beer. Outside of maybe the beer, it’s not bad for you at all, and beer has it’s own health benefits, so I’m just going to go with “it’s not bad for you at all.” Just choose your bun wisely. I bet using ground turkey would be just as good too. The filling is yummy enough, but then you add the pico de gallo on top of it? Perfect! As Matt is not a fan of fresh tomatoes, he did not top his with the pico. Instead he went for cheddar cheese, which was delicious too (but how could it not be? Cheddar? Beef? Beer? C’mon.) I preferred the pico though, the cool crispness of the pico was the perfect complement to the filling.

This is going to be my go-to sloppy joe for now on…

Posted in 100 New Recipes, Jess General. Tagged with , , , .

By Jessica
January 24, 2013

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