Montag Ego

I took last Friday off. And now I need to get myself in gear. Charge forward! Onward HO! I had a realization last week that I am hoping I can make a part of me and my life. I find I often feel bad over silly things. I am embarrassed if I put myself first or I get upset if I have to possibly say no to a person and I don’t want them to feel uncomfortable! So anyway, I decided that everyone is living in the movie of their own life and you can cast it any which way you want. And in some weird way, I wasn’t casting myself in the role of heroine. Instead I was kowtowing to everyone and thus letting others take lead. I need to rearrange roles and let myself be the star of my life. The leading lady never cares what people think of her, doesn’t care how people react… because she’s the star. And I need to start thinking a little more egocentrically. Because if there is one thing I am finding, other people are already doing this. And they clearly aren’t embarrassed by their own very selfish actions… so why should I be?

Broccoli Rabe, Italian Sausage and Gemelli Pasta

Second week in a row someone I am only very slightly connected to has died. Hopefully this will be the last one for a long time. I woke up with a scratchy throat and a heavy feeling in my sinuses. My trusty old neti pot helped a little bit. Pookie heard me choking in mid-pour and asked what was up, “I am waterboarding myself,” I replied. I am hoping tomorrow I will be fine. This evening I made Pookie’s favorite meal, Broccoli Rabe, Italian Sausage and Gemelli Pasta. It was delicious and it’s kinda my own recipe. It’s based on a recipe by Proud Italian Cooking. Here are my directions:

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb. of Spicy Italian Sausage, either in patty form or if in a link, rip off the skin and crumble it.
1 lb. of Broccoli Rabe
1lb. Gemelli Pasta
4 tsp of chopped Garlic
1/4 cup of Olive Oil
1 can of Cannelloni Beans
Grated Romano Cheese
Reserved Broccoli Rabe Water
A splash of Chicken Broth

Broccoli Rabe DIRECTIONS:

1. Boil Broccoli Rabe for 10 minutes. Rinse (but save some of the water). Place in bowl full of cold water for about 5 minutes.
2. Saute your Broccoli Rabe in oil along with the crushed garlic for about 10 minutes
3. Take off heat and get ready to start the sausage. (At this point I saute more garlic in a small sauce pan and then I add the Cannelloni Beans. I also start boiling water for the Gemelli Pasta.)

Sausage DIRECTIONS
1. Saute sausage in oil along with the chopped garlic, till no longer pink. I chop at the sausage with my spatula so it’s all crumbly.
2. Add in about a 1/2 cup of the broccoli rabe water and 1/2 cup of chicken stock.
3. Add cooked beans, and cooked broccoli rabe.
4. Cook pasta and toss in.
5. Season with salt, pepper, and the grated romano, and maybe a little extra olive oil.

The picture of the dish on the Proud Italian Website doesn’t look anything like the actual dish as I make it. Because I really cook down the broccoli rabe, there’s an almost pesto-quality to it. I serve it with Italian Bread. It’s delish. Give it a go and report back! Oh, and it tastes better the next day.

Tomorrow is WEDNESDAY!?!

Weeks fly by.  I can’t believe it’s Dec 1.  At least I can console myself by opening the first door of my advent calendar!  I should get my tree up soon.  I keep wondering if I could somehow invite people over, ply them with booze and get them to decorate it for me?  Of course being the anal retentive type I’d find fault in their work and then I’d have to do it myself!

I have to get up real early tomorrow.  I don’t want to!

Oh, I passed a lead to a sales guy at my old company today and he wrote me a thank you note that went like this:

Donna,
You are the best…..thanks for thinking of me. How was your Thanksgiving? Hopefully you enjoyed the time off with the family (oh wait…..time off from what ? Joking of course…..that was a an unemployment joke…..pretty sure those are really not that funny….you know how I do……nothing is sacred……here you are being super nice and here I am joking about unemployment……..I really do suck)

Sometimes, guys– simple is better. In this type of situation a two word email would have sufficed. “Thank you!” Consider this a self-improvement exercise.

Ad Cents, do you even care?

I finished November with $18.64 in my pocket.  Well, not really.  Google holds on to it until I make a total of $100.00 and then they cut me a check.  I am beginning to wonder if that will ever happen!

In short:

November: $18.64

October: $17.88

September: $3.06

August: $2.59

July: $6.51

At least I am doing better.  The thing is, it’s not better enough.  I would like to earn at least 100.00 a month from my blogs… there must be a way.

Amazingly Simple Recipe

One of my Facebook friends (Tom Woods) recommended this recipe. He said it was easy and delicious. OH MY GOSH HOW RIGHT HE WAS! I love recipes that have limited ingredients!

Give this a go, people! You will be glad you did!

Ingredients
2 (9 inch) pie shell
1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/2 (16 ounce) package frozen mixed vegetables, thawed
3 cups cooked, diced chicken meat

Directions
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
In a large mixing bowl combine soup and softened cream cheese. Mix until thoroughly blended. Stir in vegetables and chicken.
Pour chicken mixture into pastry-lined pie pan. Cover with top crust. Seal and cut steam vents in top. Cover edges of crust with aluminum foil to prevent overbrowning.
Bake in preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes. Remove foil halfway through baking to allow edges of crust to brown. Check often late in cooking time to ensure crust is not burning.

NOTE: You may need to get a deep dish pie crust because the regular one I used left me with excess. So I heated it up a couple days later, stirred in some rice and VOILA! Fantastic leftovers!

I am thankful

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Today I am going to bake a Sweet Potato Casserole with Marshmallows. Pookie and I will then head over to my parents’ house. My mom will have already started making stuffing and green beans and cranberry sauce, etc… My dad will have the peanut oil cooking in the cauldron set up on our back patio. I will film the dunking as I have for the last 9 years.

Our neighbors won’t be bringing their turkey for frying this year since their oldest son is taking over the Thanksgiving responsibilities at his house in Baltimore. I’m a little sad because I always enjoyed the hustle and bustle they brought to the day.

This has been a difficult year for me, as I am sure you regular readers know. Getting laid off twice, trying to figure out what I want to do with my life, setting up my own business and working hard to get it to take off. I am grateful that I have been able to head down this path of setting up my own business. I am grateful that God has been directing me and nudging me so very firmly over the last year. I’ve never once felt alone or abandoned. I am grateful I have my family and Pookie who have all been so very supportive of me. I know I’ve gotten bitchy at times and yet they help me anyway. And as I said before, I feel so very grateful that my face is intact and I am not trapped in my body unable to move for 23 years.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!

Huh?!? Whaaaa?!?!

I woke up at 6:45. I walked into my meeting at 7:15. I am not sure how I did that since the meeting place was a 1/2 hour away.

This afternoon is THE MASSAGE. I came home after my early morning meeting and took a shower. I felt like I was getting ready for a date. This will be interesting.

Thankyouverymuch

Thanksgiving is approaching quickly. My dad and mom bought the turkey and peanut oil. We are ready to go!

I’ve been hearing about things that are making me feel even more grateful than usual…

Can I just tell you, MY LIFE IS GROOVY! Everything is wonderful!

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

Bunch of Stuff

My to do list is long but my plan is to get as much of it accomplished today as possible. My hamper is overflowing, my carpets need vacuuming, my mail needs sorting, my finances need organizing, my work needs doing and my cameras need downloading. Oh, and my computers need to be backed up. Yeah, it’s a lot of stuff but I think I can make a good dent.

Last night I went to Audra’s fondue and flameless candle party. I opted not to buy a flameless candle. Honestly, it didn’t light my fire. If I want my house to smell like a sugar cookie, I’ll make sugar cookies. As the party started, the flameless candle woman was arranging the little vials of scents and I asked her what the codes on the lids stood for. “R is for romance, T is for tropical, M is for manly…”
“Manly?”
“Yes, these are masculine scents.”
I opened up a manly jar and took a sniff and said, “Mmmmmmm, fart.”
She didn’t find it as funny as I did. No one did. Ooops.

My Parents ARE Awesome

Found a super cute Website: My Parents Were Awesome. People submit pictures of their parents back during their parents’ heyday. The pictures are great. There’s a timelessness about many of the pictures… yeah, there’s a lot of 60’s and 70’s silliness going on but the people could so easily be popped out and plopped into right now. And there’s a wonderful amount of smiles and happiness that I just enjoy seeing.

I remember when I was about 15, we found some old pictures of my parents. My dad had a goatee and my mom was reclining on a leopard print pillow looking gorgeous. If I had these pics, I’d submit them. But Lisa lost them. Dangit.