Boring Sunday

Ok, I've hit the point (already) of unemployment where weekends are boring. Mainly because television viewing options this weekend have sucked. When I can't even find one single mindless movie to waste a few hours as background noise, I'm not happy.

I did spend some time in the kitchen yesterday making some garlic confit, tomato confit, and boiling down some cream for a sauce for pasta (with crawfish).

Today, it was an easy meal that was all about the grill.

Started off with some Grilled Pepper Poppers.

Oh my. Were they tasty.

We're not goat-cheese people, so I left out the goat cheese, and added some shredded cheddar. Also used romano cheese, because it's cheaper and I'm currently in "cheap" mode (and my wedge of parm is nearing the rind, I ain't gonna waste what little I have).

Get them on the grill....




And while those cook, how about a look at the garden?



Happy tomato plants!



Wow, plants continuing to actually grow in the back! Yay!



I really, really hope these day lilies decide to bloom this year. They didn't last year, for reasons unknown.

And a closer inspection of the tomato plants....



Yay!! Two little itty bitty tomatoes. Don't worry my little friends, you will hopefully get many more little friends to join you.

The flash totally washed out the picture of the grilled peppers....




I also made some bratwurst. I usually buy cooked brats, because they're easier. Just have to slap them on the grill (also reheated some leftover onions and peppers from an omelete night last week) and get them browned.


Peppers were SERIOUSLY good. We're lovers of the popper arts, and these were a pretty nice way to do them. Peppers get all charred and cooker, cheese gets all melty and good.

Actually looking forward to tomorrow and the week ahead... need to hit the job boards, do some organizing in the fridge, get in my workouts and I might even do some major cleaning (cleaning seems somewhat pointless with the hubby around on weekends... at least if I do it while he's at work, I can get a good couple of hours to enjoy the cleanliness before his slobby ways undo my efforts - this weekend I actually WATCHED him take something out of the trash so he could dump something else in there, and then replace the thing he took out, rather than just change the bleepin' bag. I swear, he didn't turn into this big of a slob until we got married. You'd think he'd have started to slip up in the seven years we shacked up before that, but no. And now I can't trade him back).

Pizza Friday!

I think I like the idea of Pizza Friday.

A LOT. Now that I can actually make a successful pizza dough. Still can't get it quite as thin as I would like, but I'm working on it. I might actually need to halve the dough I've been making and go for two smaller crusts so I can get some stretch out of them.

Also, I need to figure out if I've just been resting my dough too long (usually make the dough, then let it do its thing while I work out and then run errands, since in the past my problems have been not letting the dough do it's thing long enough). Today when I picked it up out of the bowl, it immediately tore. Oops.

But Pizza Was Had Anyway!! (All Hail the Pizza Lord, Harry Dresden! Um, yeah, unemployment has meant I've blown through the entire Harry Dresden series in about two weeks. Good books.)

The original thought was to go with a simple tomato and mozz pizza, but the Gods of Fresh Produce were aligned against me. I had a big, beautiful, ripe tomato leftover. Maybe a little too ripe. When I picked it up to cut it, there was a dark spot on the bottom. And when I cut unto it, half of it was black.

Drat.

I knew I had pizza sauce in the pantry, and I also had some low-fat salami that was left over. Might as well use up the leftovers. And some fresh oregano and basil from the garden. (Yay! Herbs from the garden! I think I need to figure out how to work tarragon into a pizza)

Lovelyness.... ready for the oven....



And twelve minutes later, a wonderful, tasty pizza....



Yes. It was good. I do need to try and figure out how to get the crust thinner, but I was very happy with what I threw together.

And another wonderful thing about Pizza Friday... I'm trying to get the major grocery shopping done on Friday, and after some slices of pizza for lunch, it is quite nice to walk though a grocery store with a very full tummy and only by what I need. I guess there is something to that "don't shop hungry" thing.

And maybe, just maybe, it helps to brighten my mood for the day. It was 7:20 PM before I was in my car and mumbled "I hate people." That usually happens by about 7:20 AM.

Gourmet Night at Chez Hausfrau

I'm ready for my close-up, Food Network! I think after this, you'll want me to host my own show.

Today was a long day... started with waking up earlier than I usually get up when we're leaving on the earliest flight to Vegas so I could drive over to my mom's place and take her for some outpatient stuff. LONG day.

I did get home this afternoon and I wanted to get in a nap, but it wasn't happening. Even my usual "always works" method of slamming down a soda as I have a smoke (hey... it works for me) didn't get me into the sleepy mood.

But despite all that, I was still able to whip up a wonderful meal that would impress my friends and guests.

Start with some pre-frozen, pre-stuffed, pre-breaded pre-prepped chicken breasts....



Add some pre-double-stuffed potatoes (I wasn't sure which one the hubby would prefer, and he was not home yet, so I made both packages).....


Arrange artfully on a platter and cook according to cooking instructions. Or use almond paste. Whatever you have on hand. (For my fellow Shrikes)



I even rounded out the meal with some asparagus. (Warning, actual useful information ahead!) Easiest way to cut asparagus... wrestle out one spear from the bottom rubber band, then snap that one to figure out where to cut the rest of the bundle. This means no more rouge asparagus spears trying to frantically escape the horror that will be the final plating.



To subscribe to my "hey, I did something so this wasn't a TOTAL half-ass meal and this extra touch will make very little sense" patented (pending) food-preparation equation, top each chicken breast with one abnormally large parsley leaf (or almond paste, whatever you have on hand) and spend four bucks on fresh chives (which, incidentally, is only about two bucks less than the cost of everything else in this fine meal) to sprinkle a teaspoon of chopped chives on the poatoes.



Oh, and cocktail time? This one makes ALLLLLL your guests happy.




A Miller Chill (the pre-limed beer) with Lime.

WHOOT!

Blurgh.

And "ugh" too.

The past couple have days have been spent being down in the dumps over the current jobless situation. I try to go with the theory that "why would you want to work for a company that doesn't want to hire you?" for the most part, but the let down last week has kinda kicked me in the metaphorical balls. Dude... it was perfect. I know I was perfect for it. And I fear anything else that comes along is just not going to be as perfect and great as that was. If anything comes along.

A week of a silent phone and no email prospects is not a good week.

But on to happier subjects... hash browns!!!

I love hash browns. But have never been able to make really good ones until tonight.

I won't show you the omelet carnage. T'was not my finest night making omeletes. But thankfully, even when they're over-browned and not perfectly formed, they usually still taste pretty good.

While searching the interwebs for a no-fail hash brown recipe, I ran across this.

Another use for my potato ricer? I'm all in!

Note... best way to shred your potatoes (not a fan of doing those in the food processor... I like the smaller shred that hand-done provides) is to do it directly into a bowl of water. I also usually drop the peeled potatoes in the water so nothing turns icky brown while I'm doing it.




Meant to get more pictures of the process and such, but I got distracted by a call that did NOT lift my mood at all. So, sorry. Deal.

However... squished-drained potatoes plus a cast iron skillet and I was at least pleased with my mad skillz as a home cook tonight...



And they looked as good as they tasted. Always a happy thing.

So good. So easy.

It's always going to be a good Sunday when you're done with the majority of the dinner cooking tasks by 9am.

Today was some oldies but goodies... Sunday Gravy and No-Knead Bread.

I was such a slacker, I've got nothing but "finished" photos.

My no-knead bread came out a little lumpy.... ooops....




This week, my mom gave me a bottle of wine from a case she bought from the winery that is in her town.



I've been too the Lynfred Winery before, and tasted some of their product. They do make some tasty wines of out the few grapes you can grow in Illinois, but they also make wines from grapes from more grape-friendly places now. Since I was about to consider trading my car to any neighbor who could give me a bottle of Chianti and this was the only red wine I had in the house, I figured I'd break it open. And I was very surprised. Very good stuff... nice and spicy. Went well with the meal.

The Sunday Gravy in it's yummy goodness.....



And how I love Trader Joe's parpadelle pasta....



Yumminess of the bread, sliced and ready to be dipped in olive oil and parmesan cheese...


Yeah. I might be able to get away with the trick of some flower on my face and trying to make it seem like it was a lot of work... but yeah... the hubby was far too aware of how lazy I was today. But, luckily, that doesn't taint the enjoyment.

Pizza, a Success Story (FINALLY!!!!)

I love pizza.

It hasn't always loved me back.

And I'm not just talking about the extra pounds around my mid-section... I've tried, many, many times over the years, to make a homemade pizza. I've mastered deep-dish using pre-made dough, but any other pizza has just been a huge fail.

Until yesterday.

Friday is typically the day I force myself out of the office at lunch time, and get something to eat.

Now that I'm home, I'm going to try to make Friday a day that I make something very nice for myself for lunch.

For some reason, I got it into my head that I wanted a Thai-ish pizza. My mom gave me some pre-cooked Asian chicken breasts that she bought ages ago and couldn't eat due to sesame seeds (Trader Joe's frozen product) and I thought they'd work nicely on a pizza.

Hit the web, did some searching, and ran across a Thai pizza recipe that looked pretty do-able. For the crust, I turned to Sara Moulton's Quick Pizza Dough.

Got in my morning workout, and decided to make the dough.

Dry goods, in the food processor...



Add the first addition of water....



Added olive oil and salt...



Um, my... that's awfully crumbly.....



Added some more water, and it started to behave more dough-like...



Have a good rest, little ball of dough!



And much to my amazement, it actually did what pizza dough is supposed to do!



So, I started on the sauce. Melted some peanut butter in thr microwave....



Added coconut milk, curry paste, and a little honey...



Totally forgot about the lime juice. Ooops.

Mixed it all together for a nice little sauce....



Punched down the dough....



And then started to work it into something pizza-shaped.

Aaaaand promptly punched a huge hole right in the middle. D'oh dough!

Luckily, I was able to knead it together a little and then started working it from something very rectangle shaped to something more pizza-like...



Chopped up the chicken, some scallion and carrot...



Topped dough with some sauce... I was worried about over-saucing, but in the end I probably could have used a little more....



Added some reduced fat cheese...



Added chicken, onions, and carrots...



More cheese and some bean sprouts....



And threw that into a 500 degree oven for ten minutes, fully expecting a failure in the end.

Boy was I surprised when I pulled this out...



Not only did it look like pizza, it actually tasted like pizza. Perfect dough... not too thick and cakey, nice and crispy, just perfect.

By far, the most successful attempt at pizza I have ever had.

Which I should have figured, since no one was around to enjoy the moment of tasty triumph with me, and there is no way I can even get the hubby to try the leftovers so he'll believe me.

But it was tasty... so tasty, I might try again next Friday with a nice, simple margarita-style pizza.

I can't wait.

Is that your sausage or are you just happy to see me??

We'll get to that. I promise. ;)

So.... my day started off with Meeting 1, of 8 proposed weekly meetings, with outplacement dude.

The main reason for this meeting was to get my "final" resume. I imagine with people who are also not as far along in the job-hunting process as I am (meaning, I've already been sending out my resume and had some interviews) it might be kind of useful.

It wasn't.

Among the "networking" techniques discussed was networking and "researching" to get "in" with someone. Not just looking at the website and news blurbs... but... well.... what was to me outright stalking (and as my friend Carly knows, I'm good at pointing out the line between stalker and "just interested"...) people. The "just try to get five minutes of their time so you can sell yourself" is soooooooooooooo not my style. I believe in the approved channels. Also... tech writing is not exactly one of those jobs where someone can "make" a position for you just because you've got spunk.... they have a need for you, or they don't. And most often, they have a need for you, but can't justify the expense until they get into some legal trouble. It is, what it is.

I was also pretty unhappy to see that their "professionally done" resume was just the same resume I have, reformatted into their style (even though I gave them a digital version of my own resume and expressly checked the "I WANT IT IN THIS FORMAT" box).

So, um, yeah. Not too sure they can offer me anything I don't know at this point.

So... on to the cooking!

Bagel dogs are a favorite, but they're one of those things that I would have to start the minute I got home from work. So, obviously, they don't happen much on work nights. So, today was just the perfect chance to make them. And the 80+ degree temps mean some great workin' the yeast (even if you have to start a very hot oven to finish).

I like egg bagels, and I started with this recipe since, on first glance, it seemed to involve more egg and might give me a more eggy result. Yeah, we'll get to that too.

Hello.... happy yeast!!!



And eggs!



Yes, I said eggS. Maybe it's just too much face time with instructions, but recipes like this one that involve ingredients that are really supposed to be split up ALWAYS mess me up. I *HATE* recipes like this. I read this recipe over three times, and thought two eggs went into the dough... not one for the dough, and one for the egg wash. Dude... tell me in the ingredient list that I need ONE egg for the dough, and then tell me I need an egg wash. Then I'll get it right.

Anyway.....




Flour, salt, and um... uh... yeah... in mixer. Add liquids.



This particular recipe does call for "additional liquid", so I first added it to the yeast mixture cup, and then the egg mixture cup, so I wouldn't waste any goodness.

Action shot!!!



And in the end, a lovely bagel dough....



For bagel dogs, the method is pretty much just getting ropes of dough, and wrapping them around the hot dogs.

So... segment your dough...



Make some ropes...



Wrap around hot dogs...



And let them rise....



I also got it into my head to make some chipotle ketchup.

Bring on the world's cutest can of chipotles!!



I love these little cans. So cute. Like, four peppers in a can, perfect for one or two recipes.

Chopped and somewhat-seeded peppers, ketchup, cumin, and a squeez of honey to balance the heat, and mix...



Mmm... tasty.



And, the bagel dogs have finished their rise...



Hot bath time!!



Those dogs went on to plates, and then into the fridge to wait for cooking time.



I also decided to make some baked zucchini sticks for dinner. Enjoy this one, because I forgot to take pictures of the finished product. Which was very "meh" anyway. Good heavens, they needed salt.



Threw the bagel dogs into the oven, and took them out 25 minutes later when the timer went off....



Um.... hello???



Yes, apparently it's Phallic Sausage Week here. Ahem.

I was half-tempted to see if I could pop out the rest and see if we could go for a Puka Dog-like experience (because the idea is neat... but I'm not a Hawaii-kinda-person) but I was lazy. And not willing to mangle a bunch of good food.

I did manage to work it back into the bagel coating.



Verdict... the accidental extra egg got them a little more brown than I like, and maybe a little more crunchy that I think a bagel should be.... but still good. I'm happy for the leftovers, because even the hubby can't polish off 7 bagel dogs in a single sitting. Three, maybe.

Well pppppfffffbbbbtt.

I've been trying for several days to get my stinkin' weather station to work correctly. I had to replace the batteries in the remote sensor, which also means you need to replace the batteries in the main station to reboot the whole system. Every time I try the sequence, I either get a blank weather station, or this....



Helpful, no??

I've been wanting to try ribs in the slow cooker for quite awhile, and since spare ribs were on sale this week and today was going to be the first hot day of the year where you don't really want to be trapped in a hot kitchen, I figured I'd try it out.

Ribs, with the usual rub, in the slow cooker in the usual braising mixture - part OJ and part margarita mix.



I also added some sliced onion - hey, it can't hurt - and some more seasoning.




I was at least smart and used a slow cooker liner this time. I figured this had the potential to become very messy.

So, I was going about my day in the usual manner, and I got a phone call. Quick caller ID scan showed it was the one company I interviewed with that I *really* wanted to get an offer from. In this day and age of the interwebs, I'm used to the usual "thanks, but no thanks" email from places. A call is usually a good thing.

Or not.

I thought the interview went well... right now I'm wondering if I maybe seemed a little too stuffy for their tastes. I kinda got the vibe that at least one person I talked to thought I was a little stuffy. And I am SOOOO not.

Who knows. I've been on the other side of the interview table, and I know you just can't try to guess why or why not they didn't want you. And to sound utterly self-confident... it's their loss. I know I'm good at what I do, and I've unfortunately worked beside a lot of other people (although not recently) who have the same title but cannot deliver the same quality of work (this can be a profession where a lot of people who are bad at it can cost quite awhile, given enough lucky chances). Their loss.

But, oh well. The commute would have sucked anyway.

So... after a call like that, I think it is totally expected, if not mandatory, to sit down with some potato chips and dip and just self-indulge for awhile. So I did just that.

And I was happy to not have to do much more fussing for dinner... threw together a quick slaw, tossed some potatoes in the oven, and fished the ribs out of the cooking liquid before slathering them with some sauce and tossing them in the oven.




I must say... pretty pleased with the result.

Yes, spare ribs are a little more fatty than baby back ribs, but for the price difference, I'll happily pick around the fat. It's also nice to know they can be done this way - sure a lot easier to throw everything in the slow cooker in the morning than deal with the foil packets and fussing with them in the oven and so on.

So, unfortunately, the job hunt continues for now. Did do a little more thorough web searching for jobs today and ran across some I hadn't seen before, so I'm not without hope. Even if I am highly bummed right now.

So much friggin' energy....

A whole day, which followed a whole weekend, where I didn't have to think about work.

I think I understand why the rich like this. A life of leisure is pretty nice. No hard thinking. Nothing frustrating. Note to self: Look into becoming rich.

That's not to say I was a lump all day... ate breakfast, worked out, showered, ran errands, made lunch (grilled cheese... something that does not translate to a brown bag lunch) and started cleaning.

Not the general, "make it look nice" cleaning... the things I just never seem to get around to.

Dusted upstairs, cleaned all the windows, washed/changed all the bed linens, washed the window treatment in the bedroom (holy crap! That this is actually WHITE, not ivory!).

I'd already planned a pretty laid-back dinner... jambalaya fromabox. Hey. It's good. And easy. I don't argue.

But... since I'd be home in the afternoon... bring on the No-Knead Bread!

(And I will admit, one thing that kept me running up & down the stairs cleaning was knowing that as long as I kept it up, I was good with having two big slices of bread, slathered with butter, with my dinner. Apparently buttered fresh bread is a very good motivator for me)

Uh... ok... that flopped into my dish kinda lumpy-like...



There... a little shake of the dish.... that is better.....



(And yes, I do see that odd line that looks like it might be cooked residue from the tape that held the lid onto the dish from when I bought this dish. I have no idea why it's decided to appear the fourth time I've used this dish, so I'm ignoring it. Try it with me. It's fun.)

45 minutes later.... pretty, pretty homemade bread....






That little dip in the center isn't a problem with the bread.... it's where the lid of the dish left an impression. Oops. I was afraid this dish was going to be a little small. And I did get a lot more rise out of this batch of dough than the last couple times I made it. It was also not as wet as it's been in the past. But it still turned out very nicely.

I did also stop at the market today... um, twice. First when I was out running errands to get some fresh okra, and then an emergency run at about 4pm when I realized I had no Zatarain's jambalaya mix in the house.

I have some polish sausage in the freezer, but when I was at the market on my first run.....



Sometimes a girl just can't pass up a sausage that beautiful. I'm just sayin'.

I like to start out and brown my sausage slices a little.....



When they've got some browned spots and there is a little fond in the bottom of the pot, then add your water and start the "bring to boil" stage....



When the water starts boiling, add your chopped okra (or even frozen works very well).....



The picture of adding the rice mixture didn't turn out well. But, it's not very exciting anyway.

Slap on the lid, cook for 20 minutes, and then I had some chicken breast and shrimp to add....



Lid back on, another 5 minutes on the heat, and it'll keep off heat for a bit...



Yum.

And in these frugal times, $2.50 for the sausage, $2 for the rice mix, about $1.50 for the okra. I'd guess $1 worth of chicken. Not sure about the amount for the shrimp. I buy cheap shrimp, and usually don't pay more than $5 a pound.

That and the bread made for a very nice meal.

Comfort Food

So... Friday was the last day at work.

I think my boss was trying to prevent me from being an idiot and working the majority of the day... he was at my desk early to do some of the form signoff and take my badge. I took it as a sign, and only stuck around until lunch time to head out to lunch with coworkers, and headed home.

Lunch was nice.

I stopped at the outplacement office to try and confirm when my outplacement appointment this week is... NO help. There was one guy there, I told him who I was meeting and my name, and he said he'd call when he found out.

He didn't.

I ended up having to dig up the number of the guy I'll be meeting with, and I finally got a hold of him at about 4pm.

Dinner was take out... nothing like a perfect batch of Culver's chili cheese fries and a chocolate malt to cure what ales ya, sometimes.

Saturday, the hubby unit woke up early to head into work, and I was planning on headed out with my mom for a bit, but she wasn't feeling well and called it off. Just as well... we didn't have much in the way of food in the house. I hit the grocery store.

While at the grocery store, a very pissed off hubby called to tell me that for the second time in less than a week, he got a nail in a tire on my old Cougar. Seriously - we just had all new tires put on the thing on Monday, when he also picked up a nail.

He high-tailed it over to the tire place in hopes they could do a repair, and I finished up my shopping to then go pick him up.

What to serve a crappy hubby to make him a smidge happier??

Chicken wings! And some Super-Stuffed Baked Potatoes.

I didn't have any Boursin cheese, but I did have open cream cheese that I needed to use. So, I started with some garlic and shallots in a pan with some buttah....



Mixed those with the cream cheese, then added the guts of four potatoes that I cooked in the oven (sorry, Cook's Country... potatoes from the real oven are just better). I got to use my rice. Yay!



Also added in some chives from the garden.



Stuffed potatoes and half-done wings, ready for the oven....



Mmmm... wings.



Although they didn't get as crispy as I wanted. I probably should have steamed them a little longer.

I was pretty happy with the potatoes...



Even hubby agreed, it was a nice change of pace from regular, plain baked potatoes. But it might also be because he never takes up the offer for some chives on his potato. Don't ask me why.

Lovely... butter and hot sauce coated wings....



Always good.

Sunday night was just steaks and grilled potatoes (that decided to not cook all the way through, um, yay?) with some grilled asparagus.

And today is the first day of unemployment... ran some errands (bank, post office and market) and I'm currently testing out the nifty feature of our DVD player/VCR that lets you copy VHS tapes to a DVD. I've got a LOT of stuff on VHS that I'd like to have a more permanent copy of. Lord knows I have the time to do it right now.....

Are you friggin' kidding me??

If I was not already being laid off tomorrow, this was one of those weeks where I just might have quit.

It's been a busy week at work.

Sure, the one group that I need information from has been ignoring me. But there has been plenty more to do.

The two customer notices that needed to be written for projects that no longer have product managers. I knew what the changes were, but finding out *why* we decided to do these changes was "fun".

Re-doing one of our CDs. Three times now, this week.

Making 10 software/documentation CD packages to help get the other writer stocked up, to find out five minutes later that they're doing a software release tomorrow.

Hurriedly making the changes that were supposed to go into the hep files months ago, so they could do into tomorrow's software build. To then be told they weren't going to bother to update the Help files, even though I've been telling them they need to get them in.

Then the fun of undoing all the changes I made.

Updates for four pages to the customer web site.

Creating new CD labels. Five of them.

Creating new CD sleeves. Only one of those.

There has been more friggin' work to do this week than since the first of the year. Ok, maybe except for the last software release.

I kinda lost it when we got notice today that they're doing another software release tomorrow. Um... thanks for the notice???

Right around 5pm today, one of the dudes who is also on the layoff list crossed my path as I headed to the ladies room. He asked me if I was coming in tomorrow, since apparently more than a few people aren't bothering.

Yes, I am an idiot, and I am going in tomorrow. I will try to get some things done... not as much as I originally had hoped, but I sure as heck am not going to let that bother me.

So, easy dinner tonight was a must. I needed to get on the elliptical to work out some of the stress in my shoulders.

Bring on the Chicken Breasts With Garlic and Parsley.

I've actually made this recipe before, and it's one of those great ones where it takes you more time to prep the ingredients than cook the food. Me like.

Dredge some chicken breast pieces in Wondra flour, dump in hot skillet.



Cook until browned (mine always take longer than 3 1/2 minutes).



Dump in garlic, chopped parsley and butter....



It was hard to get a clear picture, with all the steamy goodness....


Ahhhh. Body happy, tummy happy, and the Miller High Life waiting for me on the coffee table will do some good in getting my mood happy enough to not just turn around in the damned parking lot tomorrow morning and head home.

Extra - I never talked about Outplacement, Day Two, did I??

I might have done that because I wanted to wash it from my memory.

The most funnest part was the 20 minute talk on the underlying psychology when you go in for an interview and they ask if you'd like some water or coffee.

Seriously.

As it was told to us, it's some huge psychologic interplay about them offering and you being a good host, and also a power play that you need to take advantage of, and a zillion other things that would be much better presented as "Hey... it's an interview. You will be talking. You might get thirsty. Better to take it at the start since you may/will likely need it."

That was about the point I zoned out of Outplacement Day Two.

But the point where I really, REALLY wondered about the whole service was when the talk was about how to answer the question that you always get, which is something like "What is your biggest weakness?"

(Pretty Little German Rocker Boys like Cinema Bizarre? Oh, wait, not THAT kind of weakness)

What is your biggest job weakness. It is one of those things, in an interview situation, if you're not expecting it, it can throw you.

They gave two ways to answer the question.... and I do think they were more addressing the "how to ace the interview with HR" portion of the interview process and not the "how to interview with potential peers and managers" portion. Because they obviously don't know how badly the answers play upon a lot of jobs.

Choices were...

1. I don't do well on my own, because I thrive in group situations.
2. I don't do well with monotonous tasks, because I thrive on a challenge.

Um. Yeah. As a technical writer, a lot of the work you do is solo. A lot of the jobs out there right now ARE solo gigs. So no Answer 1.

And well, a good portion of all technical writing jobs I have had involve a great deal of monotonous tasks. And you actually kind of value those nice little moments of non-thinking when you are compiling something or generating something and get to zone out and have the brain go to the happy place. So, no Answer 2.

Ugh.

It was also funny that the same day as Outplacement Day Two, I was talking to my brother in the evening. My brother is a somewhat high-up manager in a technical position. He's interviewed people many times. And when I was telling him about the "what is your biggest weakness" portion of the day, he laughed about the "standard answers" because he's heard them before, and always wondered where they came from.

So... yeah.... I have my first meeting with Outplacement Firm, post-job, next week, to get the updated resume and have some sort of "talk". Right now, I'm really hoping that the latest interview results in something good, mostly because I really want that job, but partly because it would mean I don't have to go back.

Pardon me, but who was in pants this morning?

So, this morning, I taped a gauze pad over the burned area on my leg, just so I wouldn't have as much fabric from pants rubbing up against it.

I recall that it was still in place when I sat down in my cube at work, after getting tea. It ws pulling on me. I remember it.

When I reached the point of the after-effects of tea and headed to the ladies room, I was being very careful so I wouldn't dislodge the whole bandage job.

And... it was gone. Not even partially attached, not even hiding down my pant leg.

Whaaaaa?

I have NO clue what happened. I was wearing some sorta tight jeans, so I don't know how it would have been able to move without me noticing it.

As I walked back to my cube, I didn't see it on the ground anywhere.

It was no where on the floor of my cubicle.

Unless it was all somehow absorbed into the fibers of my jeans, I have NO idea where the heck it went. Very odd.

Anyway... tonight was an easy cooking night after last night... steamed some tamales and poured some leftover chili from the freezer stash over them. Always easy, always tasty.

And that left me some time to wander around and check out the growing in the yard.....



Ahh... my beacon silver lamium. I swear, it's impossible to kill this stuff. I can't wait until it's all in, and sprouting it's pretty pink flowers.

And holy crud.... the stuff I planted in the front is actually GROWING!



Even a few little flowers on my.... um.... uh.... um... er.... plant....



I bought some pansies at the grocery store several weeks back. Now, I prefer the purple and white ones. I noticed that these ones were a little more odd than in the past...



What's with the two petals on all the flowers? Oddly enough, I noticed the same thing on some pansies my mother in law planted. Turns out, we bought them from the same chain.

Think my sad little lilac bush is trying to tell me I should have planted it in a sunnier spot?


Yeah... I could do without it trying to take over the steps.

But look... other stuff out back actually growing!!!



And more flowers on the same... um... er... uh... plant.



Oh joy! The first little tomato flowers!


And I do not know why I continue to buy purple basil. This stuff dies on me every year.



But then I also helped my dad plant carrots every year, knowing that we'd be lucky to maybe get four or five out of four square feet of land. Ya never know when you'll get lucky.

One day the headline will read: Hausfrau Dies at the Hands of Fluffy Stuffed Animals....

Seriously.

Last week it was carpeted stairs... this week... water.

Mind you, boiling & salted water - but harmless old H20 none the less.

Sigh.

But at least the pasta was tasty??

I knew I had building blocks of a pasta dish in the fridge from leftovers from the Mother's Day CookAThon.... leeks, mushrooms, Boursin cheese. Add some shrimp and zucchini, and you've got the makings of a nice meal.



There is also ricotta in the picture above. Thankfully, I tasted it before I decided to commit to using it, since it had apparently turned. I never knew that ricotta could go sour, but this stuff sure did.

Shell and cook the shrimp about halfway through....



Add the zucchini...



Leeks and mushrooms...


A couple glugs of milk and the hunk-o-Boursin...


Yummy sauce....



And if you're not me, you just add some cooked pasta and have a lovely meal.

However, if you are me and have a crappy little six-inch deep kitchen sink, you'll end up trying to pour out the pasta and water to let it drain, and the water will swwwoooosh right back up and you and give you a nasty and painful burn on your left thigh. And right foot.

And then you throw out a long string of obscenities directed at the sink as you slam the front door shut and rip off your pants so you at least don't have to flash your neighbors, then finish draining the stinkin' pasta and add it to the sauce, then head upstairs to put your leg under a cold shower for ten minutes. Or so I'm told.

I swear to friggin' (enter diety name here) that when I get a new job, the first thing I am doing is going out and buying a proper, DEEP kitchen sink. I will pull out that old piece of crap with glee. I might have the leave the actual plumbing connections to the hubby, but God As My Witness, I'll never burn myself because of that stinkin' shallow sink again.

Mother's Day Brunch

So, the past few years, we've gone with my mom, brother, sister in law and rugrats to a brunch on Mother's Day.

As the kids have gotten more mobile and more fidgety, it's just made going out to eat harder. You just can't expect small kids to behave flawlessly for a couple hours sometimes. It's life.

So, this year, we decided to do a brunch at my mom's house. And since my sister in law is a mother too, well, why should she have to cook?

Yup, I did the whole thing myself.

Saturday was the major cooking day. I figured I'd go for quiches, since I'd seen a recipe in Everyday Food that I wanted to try, and I also wanted to do a spin on some of the quiche fillings in the Bouchon cookbook.

I originally was going to keep it simple and only do a couple and do my own pastry dough. I bough some lard and everything.

And then the produce mart I shop at started to offload all their old generic-brand products in favor of another new generic-brand. So stuff was dirt cheap.

Like frozen pie crusts, two for a buck fifty.

Bye-bye, homemade dough.

But that meant I could make more fillings. Yay!

Here we have a mushroom and shallot filling and a leek & blue cheese filling....



....aaaaand I quickly learned Quiche Cooking Lesson Number One (which, sadly, I think is pointed out in the Bouchon cookbook)... don't fill the crusts with the egg mixture until you have the pan on the rack in the oven.



Um, ops. Landslide.

That pan went into the sink, and I started with a fresh pan, covered in foil, and tried to get them back into the oven quickly.

And other than some crust malfunctions, they actually came out looking very quiche-like!



In addition to those two, there were two ham & cheese quiches, an Asparagus and Leek quiche, and Bacon and Onion quiche.

I also wanted to do some fruit salad. My mom has diverticulitis, which means no berries or things with seeds and them.

And by the time you manage to cut up the smallest honeydew and cantelope and pineapple that you can find, you've already got a heck of a lot of fruit to deal with.



Which might mean that you need to break out the biggest vessel in your house, which might happen to be a Le Creuset pot. Not just for cooking soups and stocks!



Well, apparently one bowl for my mom's house, and one for my mother-in-law's house.

In addition to eggs and fruit.... the many beautiful breakfast pork products!!!



About a pound and a half of sausage, and two pounds of bacon. My oldest nephew actually applauded when he learned there was sausage.

And the big crowd-pleaser... Creme Brulee French Toast.

I've been making this one for a few years... always a crowd-pleaser.

Of course, it does go more smoothly when you don't find your bread has already gone moldy by the time you get around to trying to let it dry out a little. Ooops. So really, my Saturday started with running several errands, including dumping ANOTHER ten bucks on two bucks of brioche. Oh yay.

The caramel sauce for the bottom is super easy... butter, brown sugar and a couple of glugs of corn syrup in a pot.



I know the recipe seems to indicate you need to bring it to some sort of actual melted stage, but I never do much more than get it all kinda melty and happy. Still a little grainy at this point. But I've never gotten complaints.



So... how do you dry out your bread when you buy it that same day?

Why, put it in the oven that has been going for four hours making quiches and cooking bacon!


After I turned the oven off, I just threw the sliced bread on the racks and let it do its thing for about a half hour. After that, the caramel goes in the bottom of the pan, and the bread gets artfully arranged on top...



I do tend to over-stuff my pan a bit more than the recipe states, and I actually need about a 1 1/2 ratio of the egg mixture than is in the original recipe. I still don't change the amount of caramel that goes in the bottom... there is more than enough.

Everything went into the fridge, and I made frozen pizzas for dinner.

This morning, the french toast went into the oven, and I also made some roasted baby red potatoes. Piled everything listed above in the car, also some shrimp and cocktail sauce and cheese & crackers, and headed over to my mom's.

(I don't have pitcures of the full spread of food... my sister in law was taking pictures - good girl, knows that documenting the food at any family gathering is just as important as pictures of the people that are there, lol - and she hasn't uploaded them to Facebook yet).

As my mother-in-law said when we rolled up on Thanksgiving... "The caterer is here!"

Indeed.

But, two moms got to kick back and enjoy a little bit of their day, and good for was eaten with beloved family. Doesn't get much better than leaving the ones you love with full tummies and lots of leftovers.

(And the way those kids are growing... I'd better get used to cooking on this scale. I'd guess we're only about 5-6 years away from my oldest nephew pounding away a full pound of sausage in a single sitting).

Happy Mother's Day!!!

This week in Cooking

UGH.

Yeah, apparently people at work have finally looked at their calenders, and realize that I only have a week left. "Busy" doesn't begin to describe this past week. "Country Bear Jamborooo" almost fits it.

I'm also fighting with trying to get as much done as I can, and dealing with people who just don't seem to think it's a big deal the writing staff is being cut in half and apparently can't recall how things used to go (weeks/months to get things updated as other fires needed to be put out) and aren't worried about what they're going to be dealing with.

Oh, and my work programs have all gone crash-happy. I had to reboot three times on Friday. Yay.

Anywho....

Big Cooking Event of the Week was Cinco de Mayo. Yay! Bring on the Mexican food.

I actually met ThatWordGuy for lunch that day, and ThatWordGuy also loves sharing new food finds with me, so not only did we eat Mexican food, I left with some beans....



Pretty good. I'll have to keep my eyes peeled from them. Much more like a canned bean dip than a canned refried bean (meaning - doesn't taste like library paste's less tasty cousin).

Got home, and my Tacos Al Pastor were bubbling away nicely in the crock pot. I actually had left out the pineapple (enzymes or something in pineapple can really break down the texture of meat and make it kinda funky) so I threw that in and left it warm through with the pork. I wish I'd have put it in there longer so it could have flavored the pork. Oh well.



And tacos... yum....





And yes. That is a Mexican Rice fromt the shameless bag things. Hey, it's about the only rice thing I don't make a mess of. And it cooks in less than ten minutes. Me happy.

This week was also the start of prep for Mother's Day. I'm brining brunchy things over to my mom's, and I'm making several quiches. All, of course, require different fillings. Including three types of oniony things (leeks, shallots, and onion) and coooked mushrooms. Onions confit-ing, leeks blancing and mushrooms ready to start....


Hopefully on Sunday I can update with the results of the Great Quiche Making Day. I can already say there has been smoke involved.

So... what's going on in the garden?

Happy herbs!


And... um.... not-so-happy basil.....


D'oh. They've just been going downhill since I planted them. I went out this morning and bought some replacements. I'd gotten those at the produce mart, and they're not about to replace them. At least if the ones I bought from the garden center die, I can go back and get replacements for free.

Tomatoes are all looking pretty happy, too....



I've even got some flowers on a couple of them. Yay! Cannot wait for the first BLT of the summer. (And the second one. And maybe the third. I take advantage of the first BLT night of the summer.)

An actual successful meal

Damn you, Martha, for proving what a genius you can be sometimes.

Over the weekend, saw an Everyday Food recipe where they did a Mustard-Crusted Turkey Breast. Looked easy. Looked tasty. I was positive I'd mess this one up somehow.

One turkey breast, slathered with dijon mustard, because it is what I have the most of....



I had to go with a bone-in breast, since it was all I could find.

Based on reviews on the website and my own suspicions, I should have kept the veggies off the tray until the halfway mark. I didn't. I started with the carrots on the tray, and I don't know what kind of mutant Godzilla carrots that Martha grows, but mine were done at the halfway mark. I took them off, and added the broccoli.



Baked potatoes were the side. I was trying to capture the really neat steam that was coming out of one of the holes, but I missed. So, um, yeah. Potato. Exciting, huh?

The done turkey breast and broccoli, before I added the carrots back to warm through....




And the post-dinner carnage...




I was more than surprised when the hubsy took a bite of turkey and went "Wow! This is really good!" and I was suddenly bombarded with questions about if I brined it or what spices or what I used.... (seriously? He really is listening sometimes when I go on about that stuff???). Just mustard slathered on a turkey breast. Who knew?

The hubby also really like the broccoli, as crispy and close to burned as it was.

Well, score one for Martha.

Stairs = 1, Hausfrau = 0

I am uncoordinated.

I know this.

I always manage to trip over air, walk into walls I am well aware of, bump into things that have been in the same place for years, whack my head on corners... I'm just not coordinated.

But this weekend, I managed one where the actual un-coordination didn't surprise me, but the result did.

I hurt myself, falling UP carpeted stairs.

And the silly thing is that if they weren't carpeted, I probably would have been fine.

Rugburn. Bad rugburn, on my tummy in a place where it hurts whenever I move.

I blame the flimsy jammies I was wearing at the time.

But, despite that, the weekend goes on.

Friday night was actually pretty good. We found a new favorite pizza joint.




Crust was perfect, sauce was good, and the actually put the pepperoni on top like we like. We were quite pleased. Only downer was this place's jalepeno poppers are the cream cheese variety. We prefer cheddar. No biggie in the big scheme of things.

Before dinner, I started taking some aptitude test thingy for one place I applied to. I'm not against taking tests as part of the job hunting process. I wasn't quite prepared for the last part of this one.

The first two parts were general "what comes next in this sequence" things with letter patterns and graphic patterns. Was actually kinda fun.

The last part of the test (which was timed) was written math problems. They instructed "no calculator".

I made it though about ten problems with a pen and paper, with my answers coming nowhere NEAR any of the choices.

Probably going to kill my chances with the job, but I just said "Screw it" and quit. (The pizza also arrived 15 minutes earlier than I thought. That did play into the decision).

One of the reasons I think I do well at my job is knowing when something is beyond my scope, rather than trying to sit there and figure it out for two hours on my own, and just asking someone else who knows.

If they don't care to value that, it's their loss.

Saturday was Massive Cleaning Day. I spent the day scrubbing down the kitchen, cleaning the downstairs bath, getting all the floors cleaned, and giving a bit of a wipe down to the upstairs bath.

Hubby picked up gyros for dinner.

Aaaaand then I took the great fall on Saturday night. Go me.

The pain must have really been bugging me last night and I must have been doing an awful lot of sleepwalking, since I woke up twice down on the couch downstairs. Yeah, notice that I can handle stairs perfectly when I'm sleepwalking... it's the "awake" thing that is apparently more difficult.

But, despite that, groceries don't buy them selves and yadda yadda yadda, so today was time for some errands and the grocery store trip, made all the more fun by the fact I hurt pretty much every time I moved.

At the produce mart, they had ripe bananas on sale, so I bought some with the idea of making some banana bread.

Searching the interwebs, I ran across recipes for peanut butter banana bread.

Wait... you can do that???!?!?!

And further reading... adding chocolate chips to peanut butter banana bread.

Oh my. OH MY.

So, I whipped up a couple loaves today.

Went with this basic recipe, and just added in some chocolate chips.

Mushed up the bananas in the mixer...



When I added dry to wet...


Uhhh.. that seems kinda thick... I was always under the impression that banana bread was more like zuchinni bread, which is more like a cake batter (at least the recipe I use.)....



I was doing a double batch of the recipe, and I just dumped in a whole bag of chocolate chips. I probably could have used less. But that "more" didn't hurt.

Ready for the oven....


While that cooked, it was on to the marinade for some Tacos Al Pastor. Tacos Al Pastor is something I've always wanted to try, since around here "al pastor" pretty much just means "pork", not the pineappley-chile marinated things that I have heard people swoon about. For Cinco de Mayo I knew I wanted to try them, maybe even a kinda crockpot version since the meat is kinda shredded anyway.

Couldn't find guajillo chile powder, but I did find dried guajillo chiles, so I chopped those and added them to the blender with some OJ and blended away....


I also got to use the Words Cutest Little Can of Chilpotle Peppers....



I love those little cans. Two peppers and coupld of spoonfuls of sauce in each one... it's just perfect for most recipes.

Sauce, blending away (before I realized that I forgot to add the onion, which I did add before I was finished).....


Pork, marinating.


I was hoping to find a nice, boneless pork loin and just slice that into slices and marinate/stack the slices.

Neither the produce/meat market OR the regular grocery store had boneless pork loins. I didn't think it'd be that hard to find ANY cut of pork right now due to the confusion about the whole swine flu thing. But apparently it is.

I thought it would be a breeze to de-bone the pork loin roast I did find.

Um... no. It looked like a friggin' crime scene when I was done.

So, this will most likely go into the crockpot on Tuesday morning to stew, since the meat ended up kinda in chunky bits. Ooops.

But the day was not all lost.....

I wish the internet had smell-o-vision.....



Peanut Butter Banana bread. And it smelled like ALL those things.

Dinner was some plain old brats and potatoes on the grill. No big whoop.

Desert was the banana bread. And yes, it was a winner.

One loaf will be wrapped up and stashed in the freezer for next Sunday, when I'm doing a brunch for my mom & sis in law (Woo Debbie... enjoying the sneak peak??). The other loaf will be enjoyed this week. If it lasts throug the night.