Zuppa Toscana

Remember how I get various and sundry veggies from my CSA program every week? Well, this week, one of the things we got was a bunch of kale. Never having prepared kale before, I turned to Allrecipes to tell me what in the world to cook with it. I discovered this recipe, which claims to be a copy of the Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana. I LOVE OG's Zuppa Toscana; I order it every time I go there. But the problem was that while I DID have kale, I was missing a few crucial ingredients: sausage and heavy cream.

The closest thing I had to sausage was ground chicken. But, I read this vegetarian sausage recipe here and decided the same thing could be attempted with ground chicken. And it worked out pretty darn well! It turns out that if you add a bunch of sausage-esque spices to stuff, it makes it taste like sausage. I know--crazy. Instead of heavy cream, I used milk and cornstarch. That part, I must admit, was a definite down-grade from cream. Next time I make the soup, I'm going to do that part right. But I may just hang on to my "ground chicken in sausage clothing" idea.

So here's my faux-sausage recipe in case any of you are interested (taken mostly from that webpage above):

makes approximate equivalent of 1 pound crumbled sausage

Mince or food process the following, then sauté in a medium hot pan:

• 1/2 onion
• 3 garlic cloves
• a dash of ginger

When onions are clear, add and cook until whole seeds soften:

• 1 tsp ground fennel
• 1/2 tsp mustard seed
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp red pepper seeds

Add about a pound of ground chicken breast and cook until no longer pink. Then add:

• 2 egg whites
  
• 1 tbsp soy sauce

Allow to simmer until ingredients reach a thick sticky consistency

These days be crazy

So I just wrote the title of this blog, chuckling at the funny DC South mission reference, only the problem is that none of you know what that reference is! So, I shall take a few minutes to explain, even though the reference, in fact, has little to do with this post in actuality.

In the DC area, there is a man named Charles. I don't know his last name, and I don't know what he looks like, but BOY do I know the sound of his voice. Charles somehow (I have no idea how) had gotten the phone numbers of several different missionary apartments in the DC area. His favorite pastime--okay, his ONLY pastime really, was to call these numbers incessantly, at all hours of the day and night. For those nice/bored enough to not immediately hang up on him or new enough to not know better, he would then have the following conversation:

CHARLES: Sister Tonks, guess WHAAAT?
ME: What, Charles?
CHARLES: These days be crazy! These days be nuts! I sick of these days! Cops killin cops. Babies havin' babies. N**** on the streets sellin' they DRUGS. I sicka these days.
ME: Yeah, I'm pretty sick of them too.
CHARLES: Sister Tonks, guess WHAAAT?
ME: What Charles?
CHARLES: [LOUDLY] WhassUUUUUUUUP! (Imagine that beer commercial with the guy's tongue sticking out while he says this.)
ME: Goodbye, Charles.

He was kind of a mission-wide joke but also a huge headache sometimes. I mean, he would call a LOT. And sometimes it was at 2 in the morning! Not OK! Sometimes I reeeeaally wished we had caller ID.

But, this post isn't about crazy days of cops killin cops. It's about the crazy days in the Life of Mindy (i know--even more exciting, right?). So, the Friday before last, Kevin left for a week-long conference in Tennessee. On Saturday, we had a Stake Priest/Laurel conference at church, which I was one of the people in charge for. We had to cook dinner for 60 people (and I had to purchase all the food), decorate the cultural hall, help run the activity, etc. Oh, and I had to play the piano because the girl who was supposed to do it had to go home sick. I was setting up, etc. from 9 am to 1pm. Then I went into my lab to try to finish this experiment from 1 to 3:30, when I had to head back to the church. Then, the activity went from 4 to 9pm, followed by cleanup until about 10. Then, I headed back to my lab to finish the experiment. I FINALLY got done at nearly 1am.

Exhausted but so glad to be finished, I started cleaning up, only to find I HAD NO KEYS. I had left them in another room, which had a door that locks behind you. Doh. And it's Saturday night, so there's no janitors around. No one else is in my lab. Kevin is in Tennessee. And it's 1:00 in the morning. I figured I could walk home, but then how would I get into the apartment? Plus, it's not exactly a great idea to walk 2 miles home alone at 1am. Finally, chagrined, I decided to try calling Ben, one of my co-workers who I know is usually awake at 1am. Luckily, he was:
1. awake
2. not drunk (he's a big drinker on the weekends generally)
3. had his phone on (he often doesn't) and
4. was available to come open the door to that lab room with my keys in it for me.

As a thank-you present, I gave him one of the many, many plates of leftover baklava from the church activity. ...but still, I felt dumb. He made fun of me, of course, but that's pretty much to be expected.

This week was crazy too, with lots of stuff I had to get done at work, plus getting a little sick, plus being in charge of teaching twenty 12-18 year old boys an art class for their boy scout art merit badge yesterday. But, I'm happy to report that I' make it through alive! The days next week are gonna be crazy too, but I have something to look forward to: Kevin and I are going to Hawaii on November 18th! More on that to follow later, though.

Trashcans and video game heroes

Did you know that if you put your trashcan next to the oven, that it will start to smell bad WAY, way sooner than normal? It's true. For months Kevin and I have been complaining and wondering over why our trash seems to start REEKING so fast. We don't create trash that quickly, but felt like we needed to take it out everyday to keep our apartment from likewise reeking. (Which we didn't actually do everyday--hence the complaining). We kept wondering why it got so bad so fast--my parents' trash can doesn't even have a lid, and it was never this smelly. (Our is the kind with a step pedal thing and a lid). For a while my theory was that the air was so much more humid here, leading to increased microbe growth--a fairly plausible explanation, really. But it wasn't until recently that it dawned on me that our trash can is in thermal contact with our frequently-hot oven. Bacteria grow WAY faster at higher temperatures (I should know--I grew up 200 mL of the suckers just the other day in my lab!) So of course the trash will stink more when it is also at a higher temp...So, we moved it. Since we have an absurdly small kitchen, there are not many choices of places to put it. I now have to walk around our table to get to it when I'm cooking, but it is oh-so worth it! And, it turns out my graduate school training is not a giant waste after all! (Speaking of graduate school, you will all be pleased to know that all week I've been getting there around 9--in the MORNING! Except for today, which was 10:15--but that is still better than usual.)

Now that this important lesson in microbial growth conditions is done, I have a funny story to tell you. A while ago I bought Final Fantasy X off of craigslist. Hey, stop laughing--that's not the funny part yet! (Yes, we are nerds--but we're nerds together. How romantic.) Anyways, we played it ALL the way through (it's a long game) and had a lot of fun doing it. It's great family time for us--Kevin controling Tidus the hero and me giving input into battle strategy ("No, no--the Red Element is immune to fire attacks--you need to use Blizzaga!) This game has a story line with cut scenes that play periodically. The hero's name is Tidus, and he runs around with his little gang fighting the bad guys. He falls in love with Yuna, who is willing to sacrifice her life to save the world. But, as it turns out, it is Tidus that must give up his life if they want to defeat the big bad guy. So, we're at the end of this game, we just beat the big bad guy, and Tidus has to say goodbye forever to Yuna. I find myself very sad, kinda a tearing up, and I realize how ridiculous it is to be emotional over my Playstation. I'm a little embarrassed, but then I look over at Kevin and notice red eyes too. He quickly looks away, but it's too late--I'm already laughing that we are both so nerdy AND sentimental to be crying over Tidus the Playstation Hero.

A New Leaf

So they always tell you to pray for answers to your problems and you'll hear something in General Conference that will answer them, right? Well, this time I did that. I was praying for help with a particular problem I've been having lately. The problem is called "I hate graduate school." It starts with a frustrating research project that just never works no matter what you try, with collaborators and an advisor that can't really offer much in the way of help. At first you're optimistic and determined, but after 4 years of working on the same thing with no results, you start to feel like it doesn't make any difference how hard you're working--you work long days and try lots of stuff, and no results. Or, you don't get to work until noon and spend half the time at work reading news and looking at craigslist, and you still get no results. No difference in the outcome, so why work hard? And then, you find it harder and harder to focus at your lab and just start getting lazier and lazier. While you once considered yourself pretty dang smart, and a real go-getter and very self disciplined, now you feel like a useless failure who probably got admitted to grad school by accident and somehow passed the qualifier by sheer luck. But the worst part is, you feel like it's all your fault too--how do you expect to finish grad school if you you're not working hard? Your chemistry grad friends all work like 12 hour days, 6 days a week! Maybe you should just quit and do something else, but then you'd feel like the ultimate failure--going through 4+ years of grad school just to come away empty handed? Pathetic!

So when I prayed for help, I was pretty sure I knew what the answer would be: "Get your lazy bones out of bed and get to work!" (I've been telling myself that for weeks now, as a matter of fact.) But, although I felt a very strong answer to my prayers, it wasn't the one I expected at all. Instead of scolding, what I heard and felt was a message of hope, of encouragement, and of understanding. I felt assurance that the Lord understood why I was having such a hard time with this, and didn't blame me. But, he assured me that I *could* get my act together if I trusted more fully in Him. "Faith is a choice," one of the speakers said yesterday. And you know what? I feel that I can choose that. I can choose to throw myself at the feet of the Savior and allow him to carry me through this "I despise my lab bench" stage until I succeed.

This week I'm turning over a new leaf. I am going to be at work by 9am every day, and turn OFF my computer by 11pm every night! (I know, I know--most of you are thinking, "Um, and this is supposed to represent some difficult goal?" Trust me, it's difficult! My bedtime has been more like 2am for a long time, and I'm not sure I can remember the last time I was in my lab before 10am.) And the best part is, I think I can do it this time.

To help me, I found a fun "online sticker chart" thing called Joe's Goals. I don't know why, but I've always liked sticker charts. It probably seems lame to you all, but I think it will help me. If I can figure out how (translation: if I can get Keivn to come do it for me) I'm going to post the chart of how well I'm doing on here for you all to see--aren't you excited??

It once was lost, but now is found...

I spent about a week without my cell phone lately. I couldn't find it last Saturday, and searched EVERYWHERE at least a dozen times. Terrible! Kevin and I only have cell phones, and on Tues/Wed. Kevin had to fly to Georgia for a meeting with his eFolder business partners, so for a couple of days I was without a phone entirely. It was like the dark ages!

But...the good news is, it's back! Kevin found it on Friday. And guess where? In the car, there was a box of crackers, and the phone was *in* the box of crackers. What?? First of all, when I was searching for the lost phone, I didn't really look too hard in that car because I was pretty sure I had taken the other one. Plus, how does a phone end up in a cracker box??? We don't have any toddlers to do weird things like that, so I can only blame myself...WEIRD. But I sure am glad to have it back!

So speaking of cell phones, um....okay, this is totally unrelated to phones, but I can't think of a good way to change the subject, so let's just dive right in. I sang in a big musical presentation thing at church on Sat. It was called "When He comes for me," based on the Parable of the Ten Virgins. I was one of the wise virgins (phew!) It went well overall, but my solo part was NOT as good as I hoped. I was so NERVOUS! My voice sounded all shaky and airy. Argh! I don't think I'll ever learn to not be nervous when singing in front of crowds. I guess it's been a while since I've sung a solo in front of that big of a group, because I was extra nervous...Oh well. It wasn't really about me or my voice anyway--it was about the message, and I think that came across really well--people seemed to be very uplifted. After that we watched the General Relief Society broadcast (the female leaders of our church worldwide do a satelite broadcast once a year), which was excellent. I especially loved President Uchdorf's remarks!

And, in another totally unrelated subject, my neighbors are constantly burning their trash in their back yard. Saturday night the smoke was soooo terrible! I'm so sick of having to deal with their yuckystinky (and unhealthy!) fires--I have called the fire department on them twice before but they told me that since they don't live in the city of Urbana technically (the city line is just past our apartment), they weren't subject to the burning laws. WELL, I found out yesterday that the actual law says they have to be a whole mile away from the city line in order to legally burn. So, I wrote emails to the fire marshal/fire chief, AND the environmental protection agency of Illinois. That ought to get their attention! (I sure hope so anyway.)

A Touch of Ike

This morning I sprinted to my car in my church clothes but didn't escape getting totally drenched by the time I pulled the door closed behind me. But that wasn't where the excitement ended. It had been raining buckets all morning, and we had rivers of water streaming all over the place. Our own apartment complex parking lot was flooded--right as I started out I began wondering if I'd make it to church at all. I rounded the corner of the parking lot and drove straight into a large lake. I honestly thought my car would surely stall--I was thinking, well at least I can just walk back to my apartment! Kevin said I should have gotten out and taken pictures so I could show everyone, but that thought was far from my mind at the time. Besides, I was already running late for church! Anyways, I made it out of the parking lot. Things were crazy after that, too, though. I knew better than to attempt to drive under the underpass near our house--that place always gets washed out in big rain storms--so I took a different route. Kevin said he saw a car there almost completely underwater (maybe 4 inches sticking out) under there on his way home from church (Kevin came home a couple of hours after I did because of all his Elders' Quorom meetings). Even avoiding that area, I couldn't escape at least a dozen drive-through-the-river-that-once was-the-road experiences, although our parking lot was in fact the worst of them. I wondered if we'd end up stranded at the church building if the roads kept getting worse, but luckily the rain let up and had basically stopped by the time we got out. Our parking lot had even drained when I got back.

My latest obsession

In the last few years I have become much more interested in nutrition and cooking, and (hopefully) have gotten much better at both. I take a certain pride in cooking healthful meals that taste great but aren't too time-consuming (I do enjoy cooking but I'm also a graduate student and have limited time--actually, who doesn't?) Anyways, I've been collected recipes from various sources which meet my criteria for being healthful, at least relatively easy, and delicious and was looking for a way to compile them all in one place easily so I don't have to scour through my recipe books every time I want to make something or plan my week's menus.

And now, I have found an amazing program that not only organizes recipes, but has this awesome amazing feature where you just click on a recipe and it adds all the ingredients to a shopping list for you! It can also generate nutritional info for your recipes, and can adjust the recipes for different #s of servings, etc. I know that you can do that on Allrecipes.com too, BUT only for recipes that are already on the website. With this program, I can input my own stash of recipes and then with a few clicks--presto! My shopping list is ready--just print it and go. Awesome. And...it's free! Yay, free-ware! It does take an investment of time to input the recipes up front, but you can copy and paste or upload them from text files or even webpages, so it's not that bad. You just have to tell the program which parts are the ingredients, the instructions, and so on.

And, my awesome amazing husband wrote me a little program to take the shopping list that the program makes and put it into a format on my palm pilot so I can just check off the ingredients on my palm as I go. Man, this is the life! I heart technology! And smart husbands! And free software!