Month: March 2013

Look, a Title.

Posted on by Zolligirl

It’s a sad commentary on this blog that yesterday I posted without even putting a title. Since none of you noticed, what does it say about you? Today was a little more interesting because my niece, Nolan, showed up. Nothing makes a house come alive like a college girl.

We ate lunch at a sushi restaurant where JD went off our vegan diet and had tuna rolls, but I was good and stayed with tofu and Nolan looked at us both like we were crazy. She was a bit skeptical of the whole no dairy/no meat thing, but by dinner she was willing to try the avocado pasta dish and pronounced it delicious. She was also a big fan of the pepper and hummus. Also the seaweed. You know, come to think of it, she ate everything we put in front of her. We must be really good cooks.

Seeing her made me excited for Moon and the fun that awaits her at college. And hopeful that one day she too will be so hungry she’ll actually eat the fake chicken nuggets we tried to fool her with at dinner.

By the time all of that was over, we pronounced it much too dark for her to attempt to drive 1.5 hours back to college so she might as well just stay the night and help Moon study some more. Also, clean her room.

We’re all about helping college girls realize they should put off marriage and kids until they get out of college and work for a year or twenty. I’m pretty sure she left with a renewed conviction on getting good grades and graduating with honors. Also, my extra hummus.

Posted on by Zolligirl

Is it me, or do the weekends go by much faster than the rest of the week?  I woke up Saturday, threw my hair up in a clip, put on an old sweatshirt of JD’s, and went to a yard sale. I had to hurry because JD was leaving to help my brother move. I would have loved to help but I was really busy with important things like a baby shower. Also, Target. I watched Baby Allison, started a new book, cleaned off the screened-in porch – all very glamorous stuff.

Oh, I did try a new recipe. A really, EASY recipe.

Take 1 avocado, 1 can of chickpeas, the juice of 1 lime, and 1/4 cup cilantro. Mix it all together in your food processor and voila – something a lot like egg salad.

This is a bad picture of a good meal on a very distracting plate. Trust me, it was yummy.  I added some salt and pepper, and put brown mustard on the bread, but you can play around with your own recipe.

Sunday was a beautiful day and I was happy to get out and frolic in the sun with my good friend, Sharon. She and I have been tennis partners for about 18 years, and while we sat out last year without playing, I knew we’d be fine. It’s like riding a bike! We joined a new team because our old friend, MARSHA said that her team needed us, and we are so good, we’ll really help the team, blah, blah, blah. She made us feel welcome and as we took the court at practice, she made a big deal out of telling everyone how good we are. We were practicing against the team’s number 1 duo, and she said “I’d pay to watch this match. Be nice to each other.”

No pressure. The good news is that Sharon and I were very nice. The bad news is that the other team didn’t listen to her at all and beat us 6-0, 6-0. A fine how-do-you-do, amiright? I played my best, but no matter what I did, the ball still came back at twice the speed. I think it’s my racket.

I can home a little humbled, but JD sat me on the couch, let me put my feet up, and made me dinner – tofu stir fry over glass noodles.

His looks a little better than mine. I think it’s the plate.

We’ve been eating a lot healthier lately and it’s been fun trying out new recipes and foods. I stopped by Trader Joe’s and I picked up these:

Inner Peas. After that tennis match, I should have bought the lot.

Friday Five

Posted on by Zolligirl

5 random things because Friday starts with F.

1. Beth Moore is my role model. Not my FAITH role model because I have realistic expectations, but my HAIR role model.

Okay, maybe my hair expectations aren’t that realistic either. I’ve seen a lot of Beth Moore videos through the years and let’s just say Hair Role Model has not always been on her list of achievements. He who has ears, let him hear.

2. The cleaning continues. For YEARS, reaching up into the Tupperware cabinet at my house has been fraught with danger. You had about a 75% chance of being hit on the head by a plastic bowl. But today I cleaned it all out, matched lids to what I could, then threw the rest away. It feels good to clean but sooner or later I’d like to clean some areas that people could actually see.

3. Nashville is one of the best shows on television and the music kills. Here’s one of my favorites from the first show.

You should start watching it.

4. This is the entrance to the subway in Frankfurt.

I would like to go and see it for myself. Look for a “donate” button soon.

5. Dieting and hungry? Go for cocoa: Participants in a study were significantly more satisfied 30 minutes after they drank low-fat chocolate milk than after a soft drink. More tips HERE.

And that’s, as they say, a wrap! Have a great weekend.

My Apologies for Boring Content

Posted on by Zolligirl

Whoever said that “May you have an interesting life” was a curse, was obviously not a blogger. How’s a girl supposed to find something fun to blog about when her life consists of sitting on the couch and eating 4 pounds of hummus? If only there was something to be done. Oh, well.

At least I had the Game of Thrones dvd’s to keep me company. Since I’d already invested 9000 hours in reading the books, I thought I’d go ahead and watch the show. Let me just say that READING about be-headings and dwarfs having sex with prostitutes is a lot different than WATCHING be-headings and dwarfs having sex with prostitutes. Ask JD. He had no desire to read the books, but somehow the show managed to hold his interest. Evidently,women in the 7 Kingdoms had access to a gym and plenty of loofah.

After Thrones, I decided to continue my cleaning spree and tackle my bedroom. I dusted, I changed the linens, I swept,  I thought of ways the world could be better -like disposable flooring and no-shed dogs.  One of these days I’m going to think of something cool, something that will save women lots of time and help with cleaning. Until then, I’ll stick with JD.

My husband gets a lot of good PR by doing most of the cooking and laundry, but lately I’ve made dinner. Last night we had stuffed green peppers and a salad. The night before was quinoa and roasted red pepper soup. My cooking skills are average at best, but I am a World-Class kitchen wrecker. Which is why I’m all about the “I cook, you clean” rule at the Tyre House that I just implemented two days ago. Especially since I cooked rice and it might be a week or so before it softens in the pan enough to be washed away.

Finally, I got on the computer in time to see Rand Paul spend several hours talking about drones on C-SPAN. I helped the cause by posting a quip online, and getting into a Facebook political discussion on the constitutionality of killing American citizens.

In retrospect, I apologized too soon. Naked dwarfs and C-SPAN – it doesn’t get much more interesting than that.

Production

Posted on by Zolligirl

As I sit on the couch with my feet up in front of the fire, I feel like this day was kind of a waste. Which is weird cause I actually did more than usual. I was about to jump in the shower this morning when it occurred to me that before I did that, maybe I should to do a little weeding. I know, I suspect JD drugged my coffee too. But there I was, sling blade in hand, knocking down the brush growing near my driveway. I cut, slung, and raked for almost 30 minutes! If you looked at it before I started, and again afterward, you could almost tell the difference.

After showering, I worked in the office, then JD and I went grocery shopping. We filled up the truck with all kinds of vegan goodness, grabbed Moon from school, then came home. While she worked with the tutor, I cleaned out the bathroom closet. As if that wasn’t enough, I scrubbed the tub. It wasn’t even bathroom cleaning day! I have no idea what came over me. But whatever it was, it also made me clean out one of the drawers in my kitchen -a drawer that I have ignored for months!

Luckily, after all of that silliness, I went to play bridge. And even though I got terrible cards, I was glad I went. Not because I’m a good sport or anything, but because Positive Patty loaned me the entire 1st season of Game of Thrones and I plan on watching the whole thing tomorrow.

I can’t waste 2 days in a row!

Moron Test Kitchen – Pasta with Avocado Sauce

Posted on by Zolligirl

I’m going to be straight with you – I can’t get my photos off the camera so this may be the lamest MTK ever. I put the card into the card reader, my computer sees it for 5 seconds, then it disappears. Lovely.

I’ll do my best to paint you a picture. The other night, my sister said she was trying a new recipe, and to be honest, it sounded kind of yucky. I like pasta and I like guacamole but combined? I don’t think so. Still, she said it was yummy.

While I was at Trader Joe’s the other day, I picked up this:

So I thought I’d give it a try. Boil the pasta as per the instructions, then while it’s cooking, make the sauce.

The sauce is simple. You need 1 ripe avocado, 1/4 cup of fresh cilantro, 1 clove of fresh garlic – minced, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and 1 tablespoon of lime juice. Mix everything together and add pepper and more salt if needed. You’ll need to blend it well. As soon as your pasta is done, drain it, then toss everything together until it’s well coated.

Voila. Your meal is finished.

And it’s a good meal. My first taste was a little bland, probably because I wasn’t sure how much salt to add, but JD grabbed some creole salt and sprinkled it over our plates – NOW it was delish. I would definitely make it again. When I googled  “creamy avocado sauce” several recipe variations popped up, so play around and try your own.

Here’s the original recipe – with photos if you still need that kind of stuff.

Happy eating!

5th Grade Writing Assessment.

Posted on by Zolligirl

Along with all of the other joys of 5th grade, there is also a writing assessment. You don’t HAVE to pass it to move to 6th grade, but it’s very important. Moon HATES writing. Let’s put it this way, when it comes to essays, Moon has a great future on twitter. JD and I have tried helping her, but whenever we gather around the table to talk about it, she’s like this:

Which is really fun as you can imagine. After about an hour of that, JD and I are like this:

It’s not pretty. Which is why I LOVE her tutor, Emily. She came this weekend to spend an hour helping Moon get the grasp of the whole writing thing. Moon didn’t freak out in front of her, but she didn’t exactly rise to the challenge. After the first two drafts, Emily was like this:

When it was time to go, she took a sheet of paper and wrote out a detailed list for Moon. “On the first 5 lines, write who, what, where, etc. On the next 4, the first thing that happened.”And so on and so on until she had 42 lines written out. She made Moon promise to do it that night, and then I was to call her when it was over. Moon smiled and said, “Yes, Ma’am.” Then Emily left.

After a couple of hours of rest, I had Moon sit down at the table and begin. After scratching out 3 lines, she was like:

But I had learned my lesson! This time, I was all:

My sister, Tania-the-mad, called about that time and I told Moon that when I got off the phone, I was going to check how far she’d gotten and I wanted to be surprised. It was like a light bulb went off! Next thing you know she’s writing like the wind. By the time I got off the phone, she was over half way finished. She couldn’t wait to read it to me. Another 10 minutes and she was done. And it was good! JD and I made a big deal out of it and she was like:

And JD and I were like this:

Whew. Everyone was MUCH happier. Even Ryan was like this:

Okay, Ryan wasn’t actually there, but after that fiasco I need a little eye-candy.