Recipe Posts February 8, 2010

It’s been a while since my last post.  Grad school and finding a new job has kept me pretty busy.  Anywho,I’ve decided to make recipe posts a weekly occurrence.  It’ll help me keep on track with this blog.  These recipes will  be yummy, budget conscious, quick, and will try to be healthy at the same time.  Preparing a meal that satisfies even just half of the aforementioned traits, in my opinion, is a logistical win.

I mentioned before that I had tons of leftover ham from Christmas that I threw in the freezer.  I took some out and have used them in a few recipes already.  The last of the ham was used with baked pasta (above).  The rotini were on sale (for $1) at the supermarket so I picked up some (and angel hair, and fettuccine) during my trip.

Ingredients:
1/2 package of cooked rotini pasta
3/4 cup mozzarella
1 cup (or a bit more) diced leftover ham
pasta sauce (pre-prepared, leftover, or you can make some)
steamed broccoli

pre-heat oven to 350
1. mix the pasta sauce and diced ham with the cooked rotini.
2. place the mixture in a baking pan or glass pan.
3. cover in mozzarella
4. bake (covered with foil) for 15-20 minutes
5. bake uncovered for another 5 minutes

and voila!

A Mountain of Mail January 12, 2010

One of the many things I struggle with is keeping up with our mail. Since we moved to suburbia, we seem to get more mail than we did before.  With the commute, the baby, etc, the mail becomes pretty low on our daily priorities.  I try to keep up with it once a week, but every once in a while, it piles up and forms a mountain of envelopes and bills on my counter-top.  Today’s post is how I tackle that mountain of mail.

Step One: Take out materials needed: letter opener of some sort, trash bin/can, and paper shredder

Step Two: Make/Mentally mark four piles: to throw, to shred, to file away, and to pay/use.

Step Three: Open and drop each mail into its proper pile:

1. To Throw:  This pile is for those that you can throw away.  Most of this stuff is solicitations, sometimes coupons for things you do not ever plan on using.  Some of this stuff, however may have your name/address on it.  If you’re a little sensitive about that, you can tear off the part with your name and address and shred the piece right away.
2. To Shred:  This pile is for credit card offers, some solicitations, etc.  You can shred now or you can shred later.  I like to shred later so that I can just keep shredding, empty out the shredder, and continue shredding.
3. To File Away: These may be statements from the bank, hospital, 401k, etc. etc. It’s best to probably file these.
4. To Pay/Use.  This is the pile that will stay on your table, or in my case, the mail slot.  They could be your monthly phone/car/electric bills, etc.  This pile may also include coupons, catalogs, magazines, etc.

Step Four: Shred, Throw away, File, and Pay Bills.

You are all done!

(Feel free to give me any suggestions or share any comments)

Rice & Ham January 11, 2010

Three weeks ago, I cooked ham for Christmas dinner. After dinner, I had about 5/8 of the ham untouched.  I packed them into freezer bags and in the freezer they went.  So, now I’m starting to use them again.  A few days ago, I made Alfredo sauce with ham – that turned out a little too salty, because I made the mistake of adding salt.  The day after that, I made rice with ham (and mushrooms and yellow bell peppers).  It has the same concept as rice pilaf, which I made for the first time earlier last week, just with veggies.  It’s a good all-in-one dish, you’ve got your veggies, meat, and carbs.

Recipe:

1 cup rice (uncooked)
1 cup cooked/leftover ham, diced
3 cups chicken stock
1 bell pepper (any color will do), cored, seeded, & diced
1 cup sliced mushrooms
3 Tbs butter
1/2 cup onions, diced
1/4 cup parmesan cheese

1. with low heat melt the butter on a skillet and add sautee onions.
2. when onions are clear, add ham and rice
3. cook rice and ham for about 5 minutes (until rice turns a little brown)
4. add 3 cups of chicken stock. cook for 15 minutes, covered, and stirring every 5 minutes
5. add mushrooms and bell peppers. cover and cook for another 5 minutes
6. mix in parmesan cheese and cook for another 5-8 minutes or until cheese is thoroughly melted

(Note on the photos, or any of the food photos on this blog, really:  it’s unfortunate, as a photographer, that the quality of my food pictures on this blog are borderline terrible. Yes, I do know this already.  It is because the pictures on this blog are taken while I’m still cooking or right before I cook it.  I can’t seem to find  time to set the food aside to take a picture of it before I eat it.  I have been known to be a little impatient with food.  I am hoping this is my last set of bad food pictures.  I may build Strobist’s DIY lightbox.   In the meantime, for photos that won’t burn holes in your eye sockets, you may visit my photography blog at http://blog.ronajobe.com/)

More on Filing System January 9, 2010

Almost two months ago, I wrote a blog on personal filing systems. At the time, I started the new filing system.  It was great and everything… until I unpacked the old one – the one that had all my files before I was married, with child, and pre-home-owner.  That small filing cabinet met the new one, and they dont like each other.

The small, old, plastic one thinks the new one is pretentious and too stiff.  After I had imagined this desperado-meets-terminator scene  between my two filing cabinets, I realized the only battle going on was between me and and the files within the box.  At least the first part’s over – it’s been eight months since we moved into the new house, and I finally decided to merge the old and the new.  The hard part now is completing the filing system project.

So, for the past week/weekemd since the new year started, I’ve been spending 15-30 minutes here and there attempting to make a dent into the ginormous pile of papers, envelopes and plastic from months of unopened because-we-knew-they-were-going-straight-to-the-filing-cabinet-or-the-shredder mail and the pre-marital files.  It is, literally, a mountain. Well, a mountain to a small animal or CLB.   Nevertheless, I am optimistic that it will all be done in a timely manner, i.e. before school starts in two weeks.

My plan of attack so far has been to spend 15 minutes at least a day putting files away and during those 15 minutes, I slowly do the following:

• Put relevant paperwork, etc in their proper files
• Put unrecyclable trash (those with plastics, etc) in a big box (it’s actually the box my new printer came from)
• Put recyclable trash in another pile – some are shredded before they go into this pile

Here is what my the battle station looks like:

From the left: new filing cabinet; plastic bag with more files to be filed; paper shredder; old filing cabinet; pile that’s to be filed, [old printer]box where the trash goes; box with more paper to sort through.

I’m confident that I’ll get everything done before Jan 19th!

The Future Family Dog (Part 1) January 7, 2010

My husband and I have decided to get a dog when CLB turns 2… This is because we love dogs and so does CLB (he gets really really excited when we watch Pets.tv and AnimalPlanet, and when he’s around or playing with dogs).

Here are some characteristics we are looking for:
1. Size – Not too big, yet not too small, the ideal size would be around 25-60lbs.
2. Temperament – pretty submissive, and easily trained.
3. Intelligence – doesn’t have to be the smartest dog, but we cant have a dumb one that doesnt know babies arent food.
4. Grooming – would really prefer a dog that does not shed much.
5. I don’t have a category for this, but a dog that can be left alone for 8-9 hours a day without chewing through the walls.

In the near future (say a month or two from now), I plan on creating a rating scale via a matrix for possible dog breeds, before we purchase or adopt one.  I’m still thinking about the design of the matrix as well as possible dogs - the thinking process for both dog and matrix have been very amusing.  However, since I imagine most humans are more intrigued by dogs than matrices, I’ll share a few breeds the husband and I have been thinking about.

• (British) Bulldog
• Jack Russel Terrier (although this one will probably chew through the walls while we’re at work)
• Schnauzer (miniature or standard)
• Visla

Any suggestions on dog breeds (or matrix design/rating scale)? For dog breeds, keep in mind we have only have a small (fenced-in) backyard and a medium-sized home. The pup will live indoors with us.