Rule #1 Do not deviate from Deb's Recipe

Christina's Adventures In Cooking.

 

It was a culmination of my inability to make instant oatmeal at the office lunch room, a flopped pumpkin soufle attempt last Friday by myself Teresa, and my mom and a sucessfull practice of creating a vegetarian thanksgiving meal for Teresa and Scoutt.

In the show NCIS, Gibbs has several unwritten rules which he follows. For example Gibbs Rule # 13 always carry a knife.

In my case I too now how set of unwritten rules to follow Christina's Rule #1 Do not deviate from Deb's Recipe. Because for anyone whose eaten her food, I will ask, Have you ever had anything Deb Pool made that wasn't good?

Thanks to Deb Pools generosity of sharing her time in consulting with me yesterday, her cannelloni recipe which she makes as her tradition for christmas, and her highly saught after red sauce; following Christina's rule #1 made my cooking adventure yesterday an epic success.

So lets start from the begining with Oatmeal at the office. It has long been known that I love to cook and bake. I have spoiled my team during unit meetings with pear cake with home made run carmel and candied ginger sprinckled on top all from the comforts of my studio apartment kitchen consisting of 2 hot plates and a oven that does not hold a 9x13 pan. It has become a game for me to see what I can produce from my little kitchen. So my co workers have tasted what I can cook. Last week they also whitnessed my inability to make instant oatmeal. It was so bad that it exploded all over the microwave infront of not only my supervisor, but the director of the Concord office. ( and Yes to all the mom's out there who know me, I did take out the plate immediately and clean it all up). I tried again after cleaning up the mess... Two Words. Epic Failure. My instant oatmeal was so horrible tasting, I made a face like one does after taking a shot of cheap alcohol. My co-worker felt so bad she left half her borrito at my desk for me to eat.

I needed to redeem myself.

Friday night seemed like a great time to do so. We were going to try out a good option for Scoutt and Teresa's thanksgiving vegetarian meal. It has been a tradition and my treat to them the past few years to find new, and great tasting and great presentation meals for them on thanksgiving. Just because they don't eat turkey doesn't mean they deserve second class food. Its been a pleasure to treat them to different meals over the years. Pumkpin souffles sounded like a winner to us.

This is where the cooking wisdom of Deb Pool starts to creep in.

Now the pumpkin sufly is not a Deb Pool recipe , BUT I happen to see her recently at a get together and I mentioned the idea to her. When discussing spices, she mentioned Fresh sage and types of cheese. This will be key later. And remember what my rule #1 is. So Friday comes along, Teresa, Scoutt, Mom , Dad, Neon and I are all very happy cooking and laughing. So as it turns out, there are a few things that we ended up sustituting like fresh pumkpin for canned, fresh sage with dried and parmesian cheese instead of the type that it called for. So with a nice robust salad, we sit down to beautiful looking sufes. Ugh. whats the opposite of Woot? It was the right tecture, no flavor. It was a monday meal, NOT a thanksgiving meal. Honesty, I think we could have taken a chance and tried again following the recipe to the letter, but we couldn't find the type of pumpkins ect etc. So.

Like a souffle we were deflated.....

Granted I have less than two weeks to find a great recipe to have to privilege to make for my sister and Scoutt.

I emailed Deb telling her my delema and requested any recipies she might have to fit my tall order. During my consultation yesterday she was able to help me not only choose a dish but cut it down to smallers serving sizings, choose ingreedients that would work for peoples tastes and diatary needs and helped me with presentation.

What I love about looking at people's favorite recipies is that you can tell they are well loved and used when there are markings in different color pens and pencills with changes from year to year. My recipie cards all say things like Margie Fosters English Toffee, Deb Pool's Curry Brocoli Soup, Sandi's Ginger Bread, Dad's Chart House Cheese Cake, Mom's home made pesto, It is like walking down memory lane with the people I love and have shared so many good meals with.

By the end of the food consultation, I was equipt with an action plan in hand, a recipe, bay leaves and just as I was about to leave Deb Pool went into her "vault" of preserves as though it was the queens jewels and pulled out a most prized possesion. Her mothers recipe " Red Sauce". I knew that Teresa and Scoutt dinner could not go wrong.

But because of my recent inability to make oatmeal, I needed to test it out. Just incase.

Thanks to the generosity and courisity of my co-worker Carolyn, I went to her house last night

Dad had to remind me of Rule #1 as I was purchasing the noodles for the canaloni. But I was quickly redirected and off I went to Carolyns house where together we meticulously followed every direction given to us to make the canaloni.Taking only a quick break for salad, it took 3 hours to prepare the white sause, the cheese filling portion, roasting the veggetables and cooking the noodles. We stuffed the Aldente noodles and then placed them on their cooking dishes which had been layered in white sauce, At exactly 9:29 they came out of the oven onto our dinner plates

Perfect.

I have done a lot of cooking and baking. I also claim to be a meat and potatoes girl. But this recipie was by far the best food I had ever eaten and NOT ONCE did I think it needed meat. It was the best food becuase it was made with love from start to finish, from the recipe from Deb, to having Christina Rule #1 and knowing that this thanksgiving I will be honored to place this dish infront of Scoutt and Teresa.

On a side note. Carolyn says I can come over any time to test out recipies, but claims the right to ask what I plan on making .... incase it's instant oatmeal.

Funny How Technology Changes Things

I had a chuckle the other day when I was sitting at my computer at work. Funny how technology has changed things over the past 20 years.

 

 

When I was in high school I have fond memories of my best friend Lauren and I stalking the UPS truck in front of Eraldies mens store in Sonoma waiting for our lettermens jackets to arrive.  Knowing that every day there was only 1 UPS truck that would come through Sonoma , when he came and that if happened to come, it would drop off our treasured jackets just before we got out of school. After the last bell Lauren and I would rush down and see if it had been delivered.

 

Now thanks to the miracle of barcodes and GPS, I can sit in the comfort of my cubical (if you can call that comfort) and I know that my World Series Sweetshirt, (just as important an item to my wardrobe as my letterman jacket) was flown from Ohio, to kentucky and over night made it to Oakland.As of 5;44 am it was put on my UPS truck in Cncord where I awaited its arival at my office later that day.

 

 

Good memories.

Making Paper Work Fun....

We all know that paper work is taking over our life as case managers here at RCEB. So I sat down and thought of ways to make paper work more fun.

In the end I have realized that paper work is still no fun, but my hope is that this gives you a chuckle.

I know there is probably a stack of files that you are looking lurking on your desk.  How do you choose where to start? My solution, Leave your work to chance.

Put all your annuals/ IPPs due on small pieces of paper in a coffee cup, then go to a coworker and have them pick a name. No peaking!

Make a cootie catcher and have some fun choosing which annual to do.

The concept of IPP Shoots and ladders seems interesting.  Roll the dice, if you get a ladder take a 5 minute break, and if you get a slide (shoot), you have to do the annual at the bottom of the slide. Large slides need bigger penalty like IPP and CDER and HCC or even worse an exception.

Would paper work be more fun if what we wrote looked for prestigious?

For example : “Client wants to move out into the community within three years”.

 In Latin looks like:  Huius vult ire in communem tribus annis.

Κοινωνική ασφάλιση πρόκειται να λάβει όλα τα χρήματά σας

Means “Social security is going to take all your money.”

After all Social security should be written in Greek any way, I’ll never understand it.

Sign your name “Bazinga” because we all know what ever we just signed will change anyway.

Title 19 things like client seemed very very very very very angry at case manager as evidence by the increase in decibels of screaming that client did over the phone.

Put “like” and “um” into our sentences.

Live dangerously, use green ink to sign documents, or worse Pink!

Print out all documents in red ink.

Change the font so that one letter takes up each page, thus any one has to tape 3000 pages together to get the whole picture.

This was written to give you a chuckle. I know that we all work really hard. Have a great Friday.

Christina

Gourmet cooking made easy "Mug Cake"

My friend Katherine bought my a very thoughtful gift for my anniversary.  Its called a "mug cake".

I used to think that to make something gourmet and scrumptious it had to be made from scratch. You know home made, nothing from a box. Hours slaving over a hot stove using every pot and pan I own in my little tiny kitchen. Until I tried "mug cake".

It was the kind of treat I was sceptical about, but on the day that I "cooked" it, I was so excited to find something so good and so easy to bake.

Its a cake literally baked in a mug. Take a coffee mug (lord only knows I have several of those), grease the inside, ad 1/4 c milk and stir in contents of Mug cake packet. Put in microwave for 1.5 minutes AND.....

Dessert is ready. No fuss, no frills, just good cake ready in less than 5 minutes. David loved it, I was thrilled and we each got our own cake.  Thanks Katherine you know me so well.

Faith Laughter and Dancing, our 1 year anniversary

This week David and I will celebrate our 1st wedding anniversary. My dad would say jokingly that the key to a successful marriage is two words "yes dear." My mom might say "coffee and a kiss from my dad every morning."

David and I both agree our first year felt like much longer than 365 days. I could spend this post writing about the woes of our first year, but instead I would write about what we did that allowed us to come out stronger relationally.  And while I could say its duck tape and an electric screw driver to put me back together or put back a screw that was loose, in truth it was Faith, Laughter and Dancing.

Faith in the goodness of people, in neighbors that rescued our dog that got out 3 times in the first 2 weeks of work. Faith that I would be provided with employment, where I could be supported, molded and heaven help me appreciated into the damn good social worker I always knew I was. Faith that no matter what situation was thrown our direction, David and I could make it through because we had each other and a spiritual understanding why things happened the way they do and because of that it was easier to wait and accept. (notice how I said easier not easy).

This year we learned to laugh. I can't say that life was funnier, because it wasn't. But we learned to laugh at the situations because at some point they were comical as we couldn't believe that despite our best efforts everything we touched went wrong. Yet our laughter came from watching our dog instead of reality TV, 3 dollar Thursday night dates at Costco for hot dog and soda at the dog park with Potter, text messages filled with lines from the Muppet's, Winnie the pooh, dancing soda from McDonald's and the occasional sesame street reference. This combined with our new found love for the Jimmy Fallon show and Big Bang Theory made for a lot more laughter over this past year.  In our life Laughter was the best medicine.

Finally, David and I danced. My grandpa Witkowski used to say "why thank you , remind me and  I will dance at your wedding." It is a phrase my dad picked up as well. David and I didn't have a first dance at our wedding however, at least once a week we put out a vinyl record and play a tune. We'll slow dance to the love songs of old. If you could peek into our home some nights you can see us dancing,  so in love, so off beat, so out of tune. Yet so happy. 

When David and I got married I told him I wanted to be there when he no longer saw life as a Picasso, but instead as beautiful as a Monet. Our life can still be seen very much as a Picasso, crazy , unpredictable and hard to understand. However, every once in a while if we hold still, stand back and stair we see glimpses of Monet. I like to think they stand out most when we have faith, laughter and when we dance.

Desktop computers truly need a desk top to be ergonomically correct.

I live in a house with David and Potter. Its a small studio apartment whose main room is 11 x 16. And yes for those of you quick at math that's 176 square feet. Tack on a very small entrance, the kitchen and a bathroom with a standard tub and we might be pushing 250 square feet total.  About every 6 weeks I spend countless hours on the Internet looking up "designing for small spaces" and take all of my furniture and re-arrange it. Thinking that "this time it will satisfy my needs". I have a "space" for my bedroom, living and dinning area. But what there is no room for is an office.

I am a messy person, organized in a way that no one else can understand. In a small house, messy and unorganized equals countless hours of tearing the whole place apart looking for one receipt or a set of heirloom recipes on cards I could have sworn I put in a safe place. It is very frustrating at first, then comical, and then maddening when after spending hours I still can't find what I have been looking for and I have to clean up the whole place. I would give my left arm for space to make an office.

I even went as far as putting out desk to on a window ledge 14 inches deep next to our bed in homes that sitting propped up by pillows would some how make typing easier. But as you can see by the fact that I have not blogged, nor written a long email since doing so, it didn't work either. Sitting on a bed with the desk top on a window ledge is not ergonomically correct and would have the people at workers comp. cringing.

Enter the last "space" in my studio I have not mentioned. The walk in closet. For the past year this has been designated as David's sleeping space. A place that is quiet and dark and a twin bed inside. Seriously I think its bigger than my kitchen. But out of respect for a guy who works nights and doesn't get much sleep, I have never dared to touch it. Until today.

Last night David and I go the giggles as I was trying to sleep and he was sitting up next to me with the cords from Google Mars, and  I wake up in the middle of the night sudden, this could not be a good thing, suddenly having images of a computer falling on my head.  He looks at me and said "Christina, no body keeps their computer on the window ledge, tomorrow make my room into an office."

This morning, I popped off the hinges to the door of the closet. Just the visual of having 10 more feet of width was helpful. I put up to TV trays (of course miss matching) made it so one could still sleep if needed and installed another light and fan so that the computer user would be comfortable by all the rest of the part sleeps.

"you should blog about this." David told me before he left for the day.

My friend Katherine told me once, Christina you are going to look back on your first year of marriage and laugh, "Hey David, you remember the years we lived in that tiny studio when we had way to much stuff, you re-arranged the furniture all the time and you didn't have a real kitchen but made gourmet meals any way." And I will smile. Yep, I will reply, we learned to laugh more, enjoy small things and never take for granted any space, not even a closet.

Pictures to follow when I am done. I just wanted to blog, now that the computer is comfortable again and I am sitting on a chair and the keyboard in on a proper table.

An Alien Ab"duck"tion, OR My mom's mothers day gift

Mothers Day is no longer just a Hallmark Holiday.  But it is a Holiday where a gift from the heart is very important.

I was talking with David the other night about what to give my mom for Mothers Day. I had gone in to look for camping gadgets because mom and dad are going camping in Arizona for a few weeks. I thought it would be fun for them to have something new for their road trip and adventures. 

David thought about it for a while, when all of a sudden you could see the light bulb go on. 

" I got it! " he said. "You should get your mom and dad Duck Callers so if they get lost they can call for help, because DUCKS DON'T LIVE IN THE DESERT! " 

 I couldn't have asked for a better idea. Its so true, if you heard a duck call in the middle of no where desert, won't you look around? So.. I got my mom and dad different duck calls (different) that way when they are with my sister and Scoutt in Arizona she can tell them apart. 

This gift far surpasses the antenna topper that lights up and has a tag that says "yes mom this is your car", it beats my folks wrapping my wet suit inside my prom dress for Christmas. I think a duck caller for an active hiker in the desert is perfect.  David thought of something so unique and in tune with my folks.

Can you even imagine? I bet no one else got a duck caller when they are lost for Mother's Day.

I couldn't wait to celebrate Mothers Day this afternoon. Mom opened a small certificate I had made with an explanation as to why she needed a duck caller. Attached to her pair of duck caller's were fishing license holders so that they could put their duck callers in the holder and attach it to their belts when hiking. Mom was elated, she ripped open the box and to my delight made a wonderful (and loud) duck sound. But to my horror, it was broken because she exclaimed "this doesn't call ducks, it attracts DOGS!" 

 But the worst pun of the day was yet to come...

 My dad said, "Better watch out , when we are in the desert people might think its an alien Ab"duck"tion.... "

Happy Mother's Day Mom, Its the thought that counts.