A little time...

Good evening!

I've done A LOT of work around here and can't wait to blog about it. Be patient.

Coming soon...

Days 42, 43, and 44 - i see clutter

So, it's Saturday morning, and I'm officially on vacation. YAY!

Between Wednesday and today clutter has built up around here. I'm not too happy about it... it's mostly little things, a book left on the end table, a pair of shoes by the door, etc. but still. I'm not too happy about it. One positive thing though - the bed got made every day.

Today we are going to visit my cousin in RI. She has a Mexican theme going on for dinner, so I'm bringing a batch of fiesta rice! I think it will be a hit! I'm going to start that pretty soon and while I cook, I think I'm going to send Dennis around to tidy up the clutter!

It's the weekend, so it's time for the weekend agenda!

1. Make fiesta rice to bring to Candi and Mike's place.
2. Pick up some of this clutter laying around.
3. Laundry - washed, folded, ironed, and put away.
4. Clean kitchen and kitchen floors
5. Clean bathrooms and bathroom floors
6. Dust living room, sunroom, and bedroom and do the floors.
7. Work out a menu for next week and grocery shop.

See you tomorrow to check in!

Days 39-41 - mmm, dumplings!

Work-wise, an easy week. Tuesdays and Wednesdays are my long days at work - and we had early dismissal both days! Yesterday it was because of staff development, and today it was because of snow - which we didn't really get.

I came home and picked up a few things around the house. Practiced, read, and cooked! I found a great recipe on "A Splash of This - A Dash of That", a great cooking blog! Dinner tonight was their latest recipe, chicken and dumplings. It was delicious, and very easy to make. I'll let them tell you how to do it, and just feature the finished product (see photo!). :)

A Guest Posting

Kate has really done a great job with her blog, and it's time that I finally come through on my promise to add a guest-posting. I agreed to do it weeks ago but, until tonight, I hadn't yet run out of excuses to sit down and write something.

I don't really have anything to say, but Kate suggested that I should write about the pasta sauce I made this evening. I did it a little different than usual, but I think it came out pretty good.

I started with peeled garlic cloves. Quite a few, actually. I think there were probably 10 or so. I find that grated garlic distributes flavor even better than minced, and it's a lot easier. I grated them with a small fine grater, and set the resulting mush off to the side.

Then for no particular reason, I decided it would be an interesting idea to grate the onion too.

Well, onions are a lot wetter than I thought. I ended up with a little pile of onion-mush to match my garlic-mush, but there was also a fair amount of onion... uhh, juice, that I drained off and got rid of. I probably should have just diced up the onion like a normal person.

I browned a pound of lean ground beef and 8 sweet Italian sausages, and set all the meat aside. I heated some olive oil in a medium sized pot, and fried up my grated aromatics over medium-high heat for just a few minutes. Then I added two 24 oz cans of crushed tomatoes, a 6 oz can of tomato paste and reintroduced the meat.

I gave the whole mess a stir, and added 3 bay leaves, some basil, oregano, fresh ground black pepper, salt and crushed red pepper flakes. I'd tell you how much of each, but I never measure. I brought the sauce to a low boil, and then reduced the heat to low and let it simmer mostly covered (I set the lid just a little crooked to let out steam) for about an hour - stirring every 15 minutes or so.

We enjoyed our meat sauce over ziti with lines.

Days 37 and 38 - the view from up here

Good morning everyone! The breakfast bar is IN! After a year, I can finally say I'm writing to you while sitting at my granite breakfast bar, laptop and coffee at hand. Bliss! The delivery happened yesterday morning, and it was very easy to install, more than I thought! The whole thing was done with minimal mess, in about 20 minutes.

I LOVE IT! I am writing to you from it now, but there's a slight problem. My parents gave us two bar stools - but theirs were used on the opposite side of their countertop, which is a different height than our bar. We need stools or chairs that are bar height. Therefore I'm sitting on a stack of three cookbooks. I look ridiculous, and have been laughed at by Dennis several times. Nevertheless, I'm happy, and the view from up here is lovely.

The rest of the weekend you ask? Done. House is clean, laundry is done, and it's time to relax for the rest of the day/evening. Dennis is making homemade red meat sauce - and I got a promise for a "tidy cave" entry about it later! I'm going to a little cooking when he's done. Just to get a jumpstart on the week. Ooooh, also - I'm going to pick out my clothes for the week again. Have you tried this yet? I didn't do it last week and my mornings were way more stressful! I recommend it highly!

Days 33-36 - I need vacation...

As a teacher, I've found that February vacation is always so needed. One more week...

In the meantime, a few things to report.

Most exciting is that tomorrow morning our granite breakfast bar is getting installed! YAY! I plan on having morning coffee at it by 10am. Pictures to come!

Cleaning-wise, nothing much going on. I am embarrassed to admit that I left a pile of (clean) laundry on the couch all week. I meant to fold it after work on Monday, and it never happened. I barely used the living room all week.

Another long week for both Dennis and I. I made a quick and easy dinner tonight.

I got pound or so of chicken cutlets, a jar of tomato sauce (I used Classico fire roasted tomato and garlic), sliced provolone cheese, and pasta.

Beat an egg in a bowl, and put some bread crumbs in another. Dredge the chicken first in the egg, then in the bread crumbs. Heat some olive oil in a pan and brown the chicken on both sides.

Pour the tomato sauce in a baking dish. Put the browned chicken cutlets on top of the tomato sauce and top with the provolone. Bake until golden brown and bubbly.

I used some sundried tomato and basil pasta I got for Christmas. Yum, and easy.

Well, it's Friday night, and you know what that means... that's right, the weekend agenda.

1. The usual - dust, floors, laundry, iron.
2. Enjoy my new breakfast bar!

Days 30, 31, and 32

OK. We fell off the wagon a little this weekend. Not a lot, just a little bit. Not to make excuses, but it wasn't entirely our fault. I'll admit, I started it. I was so incredibly exhausted on Friday night! I cooked some supper, and promptly fell asleep on the couch. I staggered into the sunroom to tell Dennis "Time for bed." and left the kitchen a slight mess.

During the night, we lost power. This presents some problems for the average NH resident, mainly because no power = no water, and no heat. We decided the house was freezing and went out for breakfast. When we got home, the power was still out. By the time it finally came on I had about 35 minutes to shower and get myself out the door for my work commitment. I left Dennis with a job. Clean the kitchen, and bathrooms. After I left - you guessed it - power went out again. This put a little bit of a strain on our cleaning plans... water is more important than you may think!

Anyways, we ended up getting the cleaning done on Sunday. No problem. While I was at orchestra rehearsal, Dennis was supposed to grocery shop. Well, apparently our grocery store closes early on Sundays. He could have gone to another one, and spent an extra $40, but he wisely picked up a salad for me to take to work on Monday and came home.

Long story longer, I had to grocery shop after work today. Blah. I hate doing that.

Bright side? I made a great dinner! (Forgot to take a picture... I'll take a picture of the leftovers!!)

Steak Tips with Peppered Mushroom Gravy - source, Cooking Light

2 cups uncooked egg noodles
cooking spray
1 pound top sirloin steak, cut into 3/4-inch pieces
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons finely chopped shallots
1 (8 oz) package presliced baby bella mushrooms
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 and 1/2 cups fat free, less-sodium beef broth
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 fresh thyme sprigs
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves (optional)

Cook noodles according to package directions - omit salt and fat. Drain.

While noodles cook, heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat the pan with cooking spray. Add steak and saute 5 minutes, browning on all sides. Remove from pan, cover.

Melt butter in pan over medium-high heat. Add shallots and mushrooms. Saute for about 4 minutes. Add garlic and saute 30 seconds. Stir in soy sauce. Sprinkle with the flour and cook for 1 minute stirring constantly.

Gradually add broth, stirring constantly. Add pepper, salt, and thyme sprigs. Bring to a boil.

Cook for 2 minutes or until thickened. Return beef to pan and cook until warmed thoroughly, about 1-2 minutes.

Discard thyme sprigs. Garnish with fresh thyme leaves if desired.

Yields 4 servings.

Calories: 344, Fat 12.5g, Protein 273g, Carb 28.7g, Fiber 1.7g, Cholesterol 95mg, Iron, 4.3mg, Sodium 538mg

It was delicious! A new favorite!

How did your weekend shake out? Did you let your house get away from you a bit? Did you get back on the wagon like me? :)