My Night In! Lemon Ricotta Spaghetti

Chad is working late tonight due to the State of the State address by Governor of Michigan. He has to stay there to listen to the speech and maybe some receptions afterward. The roads are going to get bad quickly so I hope he just comes home.
Well, when I found this out I got excited about what I am going to have for dinner. I am having a recipe from Ruth at 4Every Kitchen for Marscarpone Herb and Lemon Spaghetti. I made it once before and it was so yummy. I am sure Chad wouldn't like it so I have to wait to make it just for me. Then I thought, OH BOY this is going to be so good for lunch this week at work! So, I made it. I used Ricotta because Marscapone is SO expensive and I am cheap! My dinner was SO delicious. You should try this INCREDIBLY easy recipe. I mean, you don't even cook the sauce!

Lemon and Ricotta Spaghetti

Ingredients
8 oz Spaghetti (or other type of pasta)
the zest and juice of one lemon
1/2 cup Mascarpone or Ricotta Cheese (I used lowfat, naturally)
2 tbsp each chopped basil and flat leaf parsley (I did that this summer when I had an herb garden but today I used dried *gasp*)
1/2 cup coarsely grated parm. cheese

Directions
1. cook the pasta according to package directions
2. meanwhile mix mascarpone or ricotta and zest and juice in a large bowl
3. drain pasta and mix in the cheese
4. mix in herbs and parm
5. serve and enjoy

It is seriously that easy. It is just as easy as Kraft Mac & Cheese. This recipe is SO GOOD! You should try it, it has very few ingredients and a lot of good flavor. It made me feel all summery during such a dreary day!

Panera Chocolate Duet Cookie rip off

So we often go to Panera Bread on Sunday mornings to get delicious food and read the newspaper. It is a really relaxing way to start the day. One of my favorite things about it is the cookies we get. They have delicious Chocolate Duet Cookies. They call them that because they have milk and white chocolate chips in chocolate cookies. They also have walnuts. I tried to find a copycat recipe online but I couldn't. So I found a chocolate chocolate chip cookies and changed it up a bit.

Amy's Chocolate Duet Cookies

Ingredients

2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda

3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 cup butter (I used half butter and half margarine butter is too expensive!)

1 small package walnuts
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup semisweet or milk chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat oven to 350* F
Mix together dry ingredients (MINUS SUGARS) in a large bowl
Cream together butter, sugars, egg, and vanilla
Add dry ingredients to butter mixture
Stir in chips and nuts
Drop by teaspoon onto ungreased cookie sheet
Bake 9-12 Minutes

Well, the instructions I had first said combine dry ingredients and then later it said to cream sugars, eggs, and butter. So of course my freaking sugar was my already mixed with my stupid flour and cocoa powder. Anyway, it turned out okay. The batter was delicious!!! I know I shouldn't eat raw batter but I don't care, its yummy and gooey. These cookies turned out surprisingly like the original. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a rule follower and that goes with recipes too. I am always nervous to go without a recipe so it was nice to try to make something new without a plan. I think Chad will like them and they made SO many cookies that I am sure to gain a pound or two before they are all gone! In fact, I should take some to work, otherwise we are both going to get sick on these cookies!

What'da think?

So I NEED to put up some curtains on our sliding glass door in the dining area. We are getting a new dining table very soon and it is pretty formal and very dramatic. Right now we have *cringe* vertical blinds (please don't judge me). They came with the house and we can only do one room at a time. The first floor of our house has a aqua blue with brown theme. It isn't over done but the rooms all flow together so it would be hard to get a completely different color in the dining room that link the kitchen and living room. The color scheme is nowhere near over done (yet) just the curtains in the living room and the small valance in the kitchen along with the pillows in the living room and some mugs/kitchen towels in the kitchen. The new table is a dark brown and it will be pretty big. I want to keep the curtains light in color otherwise that area will look too dark.

This is what the area currently looks like:

We currently have some more interesting pictures with dark brown frames along the blank wall which will go with but not overly match the new table.

This is the living room that opens up to it:


So, do you think these curtains would work? I don't really love tab-top curtains but I don't necessarily hate them. Any thoughts?

Home again, home again, jiggity jig

So, I had a blast in South Carolina. It was a lot of fun to visit with sis and aaron and to just relax for the weekend. The weather was not as hot as I was hoping for but it is SO cold here that it was still an upgrade.
The big news is going back to work. My kids are SICK, SICK, SICK. They are getting sicker by the day. I had 10 kids gone on Tuesday and 8 kids gone today. I have had a couple of kids gone for over a week now. The big problem is a weird flu that seems to be highly contagious. It is weird because it is a wet, wheezy cough for a day and then a quick fever and the kid is out of commission for the better part of a week. I had two parents try to send their kids to school today sick as dogs. WHY oh WHY do parents insist on sending miserable, fever ridden children to school? I don't want to get sick and I don't want to get the only well 12 children in my class infected. STAY HOME. I am sorry if you have to take a day off of work or take your child to Grandma's but honestly, I am so FREAKING tired of getting sick needlessly. I anti-bac-ed my classroom about 100 times today and each kid had to wash their hands if they so much as touched their face (which in Kindergarten is constantly). It is very, very difficult for me to miss work, especially when I am sick and I can't plan ahead.
Enough venting for now. Tomorrow is Thursday, which is awesome. I have enjoyed watching Idol all week and Project Runway is on tonight too! I hope everyone is enjoying their week!

The best gift in the world!

Well, it seems like only yesterday when I opened the most thoughtful gift for Christmas. My husband got me a trip to see my sister, Mary, in South Carolina. At the time it seemed like it was a long ways away. But now it is TOMORROW!!! I can't wait! I saw her at Thanksgiving but I missed her so much at Christmas.
My sis has so many awesome plans for us. We are getting pedicures, going to a comedy festival, and seeing 27 Dresses. I wish my sis lived closer to me so we could do stuff like that all of the time. It seems that for the last couple of summers we were so busy with our weddings that we haven't had much time to spend just the two of us. What's worse is that I feel like I never get to see her husband so I am really excited to spend some time with him as well! I think that we will have LOTS of fun while I am down there. I get to stay at their beautiful house and spend some time with one of my favorite people. Who could ask for more out of a long weekend?

American FREAKING Idol!

I love, love, love American Idol. I know that I sound like a 14 year old but I really like it. Right now they are doing the audition phase which kinda sucks and is mostly cruel to the off-beat people of the world. There are so many people who really, truly believe that they are super talented singers. They honestly believe they sound as good as Kelly Clarkson or Carrie Underwood, I mean, really. The only problem is that they SUCK SO BADLY! (which reminds me that people leaving the -ly off of adverbs is beginning to drive me crazy in our society. Get with it people!) Anyway, I just watched AI after cooking a very extensive dinner for a weeknight. Its off to a shower and then to bed. I should publish some more recipes soon but I am too lazy. We had pan-fried breaded chicken breasts today (breaded in parm cheese/bread crumbs), homemade mashed 'taters, and cresent rolls. I am having leftovers for lunch tomorrow! YUMMY! I hope everyone is having a good day!

Quick Week!

Well, tomorrow is Friday and it has been a quick week. It is amazing how differently time can pass when you are busy or bored. This week was like most during a regular week of work, with one awesome exception, no classes! I don't have a bunch of homework or papers. It makes it pretty lazy around here once I get home. Of course when Chad gets home each day we take a high quality nap for like 45 minutes. I think its my favorite part of the day. I know I should work out during that time but we sang about 4 jump and dance songs at work today so that should count for something. There was a new Grey's Anatomy and ER tonight, so that was cool. I basically sat like a lump for a few hours today. Ahhhh, how nice. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Back to work!

So I have been back to work for two days and it hardly feels like I had a two week vacation but not necessarily in a bad way. I have realized lately that although my job is a LOT of work, and I mean a lot of work, I love it. A lot of people think that Kindergarten teachers must be crazy. They are probably right. Usually people say that just as everything in a classroom is falling apart. For example there are generally a few parents lingering outside of my classroom door at the end of the day. This is one of the craziest times of the day, imagine getting 22 children bundled up in coats, hats, boots, gloves, etc. Imagine that only a few of them can zip their coats, they can't get anything else in their over-stuffed back packs, there is always a last minute note to send home, and one of the kids gnerally doesn't know if they are getting picked up or riding the bus and they are crying about it.
So, also at this time the parents outside the door are looking at me with a look of, well, I'm not sure. Sometimes I think it is judgement (too much yelling, too much chaos) and sometimes I think they are feeling pity for me. One parent said to me just before Christmas, I think we should get you a bottle of Jack Daniel's for Christmas. I didn't know how to take it so the next day I asked her. I figured she thought I needed to relax like I am too stressed and I couldn't handle my classroom. She told me that with the job I have I deserve a stiff drink at the end of the day.
I guess sometimes I feel a bit self-concious about people watching me teach. Most people don't understand what it is like to manage 22 children at a time. It is MUCH different than 2 or 3 kids at a time. I know that I am not a mom, that job is much harder than mine, but I just always feel like people are judging me. That is understandable since I spend 6 hours a day with their children. I think I am so sensitive because I take my job so seriously. I love my kids so much and I want to be a nice, calm, caring, put together teacher all the time but admittedly there are times that I raise my voice, have you tried to whisper over 22 five year olds? And there are times that I lose my patience but with that said, I still LOVE my job. I love my kids and I am always trying to improve. I think it is good for me to keep self-evalauating. Any teacher who won't self-evaluate is the one to worry about as far as I'm concerned.
Enough rambling, I hope everyone is getting back into the swing of January. Post holiday time is always a bit sad for me but I have a trip to South Carolina soon to see my SIS! YAY!

Well, at least I worked out today

I didn't leave the house today. Usually that would be really depressing but we have been so busy lately that I really enjoyed it. I slept in kinda late and watched a bit of T.V. Then, believe it or not, I worked out! I was pretty proud of myself. Surprisingly, I weighed myself this morning anticipating a huge holiday weight gain and I didn't really gain any weight. In fact, I actually weighed less this morning than I did before Christmas break started. I think I am a bit dehydrated now because I drink so much water at work and my schedule is all thrown off. Overall, however, I must not have gained that eight pounds that surveys claim the average American gains during the holidays. Maybe it just hasn't caught up with me yet. I have had a lot of chocolate! It had to go somewhere!
Oh well, I had a wonderful lazy day today, no blowdryer, no flat iron, no makeup, and I wore loungey pants all day! I may never go back to work. :)

No work until Monday!

Well, I am still on vacation until the seventh and I have to tell you that I miss my Kindergarteners! I was very busy with Christmas and New Year's and Chad had most of the time off with me but now I will be home alone for the next three days. Oh well, I found the Harry Potter series to fill up my time. I can't put them down. I have three left and they are HUGE. Oh well, I have nothing but time on my hands.
Enjoy all of the posts below to see what I have been up to!

New Year's Day and the BIG game - Pork Tenderloin

Well, it is New Year's Day and after our ditch episode last night (see 2 posts below) we had my Aunt Pat, Unc, and Chad's parents over to watch the game. We had lots of snacks including Cindy's famous cheese spread (I will publish the recipe soon) with garlic toast, Aunt Pat's veggie tray, more taco chips and dip and a delicious lunch. We had pork tenderloin and mashed potatoes (which were a suprise even to me!)
I made the marinade for the tenderloin on New Year's Eve and let it marinate overnight. It came out moist, tender, and delicious. It was my first tenderloin so I was nervous but I was very happy with the results.

Pork Tenderloin
courtesy of the Food Network

Ingredients
1 1/2 - 2 lbs. pork tenderloin
Marinade:
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoon dry red wine
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 teaspoon grated ginger (I omitted this because I didn't have it)
1/2 teaspoon groun cinnamon
2 green onions (green part only), chopped. Yeah right, I used onion powder.

Combine the marinade ingredients in a measuring cup and whisk together. Pour over pork in a plastic bag. Marinate overnight.


Preheat oven to 350* F. Bake for 45 minutes until the meat is 145* F internally.
Well, I don't have a meat thermometer so I just cooked it for 50 minutes because my oven tends to undercook things. I cooked it in a 9x13 pan lined with aluminum foil. I turned the tenderloin over a couple of times while it was cooking and used my basting brush to get the juice on top of the meat twice during cooking.

Allow the meat to rest for 10 minutes. Then cut into 2 inch pieces. Drizzle some of the juice over each piece before serving (I just used my brush to brush each side with a bit of the cooking juices on the serving platter). I was really happy with how this turned out! It was so delicious!

We finished up the gameday meal with the other half of my trifle (see recipe below). I made it right before I served it with the other half of my ingredients.

Plan B- Garlic Mashed Potatoes

So I was planning on roasting some potatoes to go along with my pork tenderloin but I got out the bag and they were soft and wrinkly. I knew I couldn't use them but I already had people over so I had to find a plan B. Then I remembered a couple of months ago when Meijer was having a sale on boxed potatoes and I bought a box of Betty Crocker garlic mashed potatoes. The box had two pouches of 4 servings so it was perfect for our group of 6. They were extremely easy to make and it was actually a much better idea than screwing around with a bunch of potatoes in the oven. They were really good and I think I will make them again when people come over!

New Year's Eve, the ditch, and Chocolate Toffee Trifle

For New Year's Eve we decided to go to my friend Alison's house which is about 20 minutes south of where we live. It was 3 couples and my friend Kacey's three year old son, Evan, who is obsessed with Superman. In fact, he has a cape that he refuses to take off and if he for some reason is not wearing a Superman shirt and you call him Superman he will say, "Ahhm Clarr Kennn" which means "I'm Clark Kent." It's pretty funny.
So anyway we played games, ate food, and got stuck in a ditch! OH YEAH! Lots of fun in the 8 or so inches of snow we got. Fortunately we were right outside of Ali's house on the way home when it happend. We waited a long time for AAA to send us a tow truck so we decided to call one of our own. By the time it all resolved it was so late and the roads were so bad that we ended up sleeping at Ali's. It worked out well because I didn't want to drive home in that junk, especially with the New Year's drunks on the road.
But anyway, before all of those dramatics we ate some delicious food. I made taco pie cups, taco dip (see below), and Chocolate Toffee Trifle. I think it is my new fav desert. I used the recipe below but I made half of it for New Year's Eve and I kept the second half of the ingredients seperate for New Year's Day. Don't assemble this dessert too far ahead of time or it could get soggy.

Chocolate Toffee Trifle
courtesy of the Food Network

Ingredients
1 box chocolate cake mix (I used Devil's Food)
1/2 cup coffee liqueur
2 cups fudge sauce
3 chocolate covered toffee bars (Heath Bars), broken into pieces
2 big containers of Cool Whip or whipped cream

Directions
Prepare the cake according to the box instructions in a 9x13 pan.
Cool throughly.
Poke the entire top of the cake with a fork and pour the coffee liqueur over the cake to soak in.
Refrigerate for at least 3 hours.
Slice the cake into 1 inch thick pieces.
Then line the bottom of a large glass bowl with a layer of cake. Pour 1/3 of the hot fudge sauce and a 1/3 of the Heath bar on top of the cake. Then top it with whipped cream. Repeat this two more times.
I used some of the chocolate sauce on the top to make it pretty.

Like I said, I only used 1/2 at a time and it made a big dessert. Enjoy!

Taco Pie Cups and Taco Dip

So I thought I would make something at Alison's that everyone would like. I know that Kacey, Ali, Chad, and I all love taco pie so I decided to make taco pie in a muffin tin to make it easier to eat at the party. It was just like the original but it was a bit of work to make the cresents do what I wanted. Also, I didn't have too much room for the layers so each cup has Taco Doritos, meat, and cheese. I couldn't do the double layers of chips and cheese but it worked out okay. Honestly, my favorite part is the cresent anyway. To make the cresent rolls the right shape I took the larger rectangles and pinched the seam and cut them into squares to put into the cup. I cooked them for 6 minutes empty, layered in the ingredients, and cooked for about 15 minutes.
I brought them in my new pyrex portable that Chad got me for Christmas. It was so handy! It turned out to be a good party food!

I also used my other pyrex portable to bring taco dip and chips to Ali's. I just used the extra taco meat from the taco pie cups. It worked out wonderfully!

Chicken Noodle Soup!

So I made my first chicken noodle soup from scratch. It was funny because I told my friend Deb about it and she asked me if I made the noodles. HA! I thought I was pretty good making my own soup instead of opening a can. Hehehe. Now that I know how easy it is I can see the point in her question. That soup was as easy as making spaghetti. So, here is my recipe for Chicken Noodle Soup

Chicken Noodle Soup
Ingredients:
1/4 cup olive oil
3 or 4 carrots chopped
3 or 4 stalks of celery or celery hearts chopped
6 - 8 cups chicken broth
1 lb chicken cut into bite sized pieces
1 lb noodles (I used Kluski)
I think you are supposed to use onion too but anyone who knows me knows that I clearly wouldn't add them! ;)

Directions
put the oil in the bottom of the skillet with the veggies over medium heat. Cook until they are a bit tender, then the stock and bring to a boil and add chicken and noodles. Cook 10 minutes. Eat.
I also made cresent rolls to go with it but I cut them in half so that they would cook through. This was so easy and so comforting with all of the snow we have been having!