First Parade Magazine, now the coupon flyer

Tonight I finally got around to trying a recipe I'd pulled out of one of the Sunday coupon flyers, for Margarita Chicken. To my surprise, it was actually very good! I'm sure the "juice & zest of one lime" had a lot to do with that. I had my doubts when I started, but I'm glad I decided to take the plunge, and so is the Chief. We'll definitely be making this again.

Margarita Chicken
4 boneless chicken breasts
1/4 c. canola oil (I used extra-light olive oil)
1 lime
2 Tbsp. honey
2 c. finely crushed tortilla chips
1 can Mexican-style stewed tomatoes, juice & all
1/4-1/2 c. fresh cilantro, chopped
1 c. shredded Monterey jack/cheddar cheese

Mix oil, juice & zest from the lime. honey in a bowl. Dip chicken in mixture and roll in tortilla crumbs to coat. Place in baking dish; bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes.

Puree tomatoes, cilantro in blender. (Save some cilantro for garnish.) Remove chicken from oven, cover w/ puree, top with cheese. Return chicken to oven for about 5 mins. to melt the cheese.

Christmas present worth waiting for!

The Chief ordered me a lovely wooden music stand for Christmas. The company was so backlogged that we were originally given an April shipping date. However, they were obviously being very conservative in their estimate, as my music stand arrived today! The Chief had it all assembled and ready to go by the time I got home from work, and I just had to get pictures to show off. Natural maple, all that lovely fancywork - seems a shame to cover it up with music! :-)

A reason to read Parade magazine

I have no idea how long Parade Magazine's been running its "Sunday dinner" feature, but a couple of weeks ago I actually looked at it instead of paging past it. The recipe was someone's mother's meatball recipe, which sounded pretty good. Added one or 2 ingredients to the next grocery list, made a batch of meatballs and, after the 2nd dinner (when the flavors had had time to "develop"), decided I'm gonna hafta start paying attention to these recipes! I just made another batch this afternoon between church & rehearsal and left the meatballs simmering in sauce for about 6 hours, so the flavors had lots and lots of time to get blended. The Chief already had last night's leftovers ready for dinner when I got home tonight, but I'm looking forward to dinner tomorrow night!

Today's recipe was for a flourless chocolate cake - perfect to offer family and friends who can't eat gluten, and with only 4 ingredients, it looks pretty easy, too. Just need to add eggs and quality semi-sweet chocolate to this week's grocery list...

Back in the audition saddle again

Last week I auditioned for a production of The Cocktail Hour. I knew going in that it was a longshot - only 2 women's roles, and with one of those a woman in her 40s and the other that woman's mom, I was not at all surprised to see plenty of us vying for those 2 roles. I don't think I read badly, but so many of the others read well that I knew when I left that I wouldn't be cast.

This afternoon I had an audition for The Burial at Thebes, one of these "cheery" little plays in which nearly all the play's characters end up dead at the end. Having attended a funeral earlier in the day, I arrived at the theater in my black suit, which seemed suited to the subject matter. (Doubt is currently running there and the director told me my "attire" fit right in with the set.) While I thought some of the other women read very well indeed, I thought I read reasonably well, and I had easily the biggest voice there (a couple of the other, very strong women were a bit hard to hear at times). I was pleased to learn that I made callbacks, but frustrated by the fact that I've got a rehearsal that night. I've never run into this before; wonder how it'll work out?

Another funeral

The service for LH's mom was this morning. Weather was pretty cooperative, considering - a light mist rather than the sleet that was in the forecast a few days ago. Rain always feels right for a funeral, somehow, as if God's sharing our pain.

I went from there to an audition for The Burial at Thebes. I didn't bother to change out of my black suit; given that nearly all the play's characters end up dead at the end, funereal black seemed completely appropriate.

Different forecast

Every so often, this strip makes me laugh out loud:

So many recipes, so little time.

Actually took a good, long look at the latest issue of Cook's Country magazine the other day. Definitely plan to try their pot roast recipe as soon as they explain what "espresso powder" is. There are several other recipes I'd like to try too, not to mention the Christmas cookie recipes in the last issue - wonder if they'd ship well?

We've enjoyed both Cook's Country and Cook's Illustrated - they evaluate cooking equipment, ingredients and tools a la Consumer Reports, explain cuts of meat or types of flour, and even explain the chemistry of cooking and why a given ingredient can hurt or help a recipe. Their Thanksgiving issue is definitely a keeper - steps you through all the stages of assembling a traditional turkey dinner, warning how to avoid common pitfalls and suggesting variations or alternatives to traditional dishes.

We're only going to keep Cook's Country - Cook's Illustrated is more technical - which is still more than I can keep up with, but I can dream, right?

Good riddance, 2010!

No, it wasn't a total disaster, but 2010 was definitely one of the 2 worst years of my life:

• major respiratory problems for most of February through April
• that blasted double blizzard that dumped 3 feet of snow on us in early February
• the Chief's mom diagnosed w/ terminal cancer in early February
• my mom suddenly dying of cancer later in February (we're betting she'd known for months it was back)
• Chief's cousin learned her cancer was back for a 3rd round
• KL's husband dropped dead of a heart attack at only 42 years old in July
  
• Mom's brother died of cancer (are you seeing a pattern here?) in August
• the Chief's mom's cancer killed her in December

Not to mention all the trials friends of ours were up against (another cousin of the Chief's was widowed, one friend lost several loved ones, another friend's dad nearly died of heart problems, a family friend suffered a stroke, a neighbor came down w/ pneumonia and didn't get out of the hospital for over 2 months...).

I haven't been this glad to see a year end over 20 years (child died, marriage followed)!

Date night!

Last night TW decided we'd go see a movie tonight, something we haven't done since January. We settled on The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which was very well done - enjoyed the cinematography and most of the characterizations. Caspian was still something of a cipher, but we quite liked Lucy and Edmund, and I loved Reepicheep! Eustace was also very good.

After the movie (and a sidetrip to pick up a Christmas present), we went to a nearby diner for dinner. I even got a free milkshake to go w/ my burger, courtesy of my movie ticket stub. We'd have gone there anyway, but it was nice to get a little freebie. TW and I had a bit of a theological discussion about death & dying, but it wasn't morbid; more a "wonder if it's like this..." discussion.

Unfortunately, he wasn't feeling too well even when we left the house, so he went to bed as soon as we got home. We're hoping a good night's sleep will take care of whatever it was.

Waiting for a call

TW's been calling home daily since Sunday, checking on his mom. I doubt she'll be with us much longer: she's gotten so weak they don't even try to get her out of bed, just shift her so she doesn't get bed sores, and when TW calls, they have to hold the phone for her. TW's brother said she sleeps pretty much 24/7 now, and no longer eats - just takes a bit of one of those nutrition drinks. TW says when he's talked to her, he's heard her making little grunts of pain. I wonder how soon God will take her Home; it breaks my heart to know she's suffering.

This could be a really sucky Christmas

I've been bracing myself for the pain of our first Christmas without Mom. The rest of us will all be together, but that gaping, Mom-sized hole is gonna be raw.

TW called home earlier this afternoon to let his brother know we were planning to come up for another visit next weekend, but he waved us off. MuMu is more & more out of it (she asked TW, again, how the kids are), so I guess P thinks she won't know us if we visit. From what TW relayed, it sounds like MuMu's decline is accelerating; last week, just making the short trip to the bathroom tired her enough that she needed oxygen for 5 or 10 minutes before returning to her recliner. She's weak, she's in pain, and she's outlasted the 3-6 months the docs gave her when they diagnosed her terminal cancer 8 months ago.

This could affect our plans to spend Christmas with my family - they live in the midwest, while MuMu & P live 5 or 6 hours' drive northeast of us. Depending on how much longer God gives MuMu, we might end up going north for a funeral before going west for Christmas (or post-Christmas), or cutting our midwest trip short to head back east for a funeral. Or MuMu might hang in there until after New Year's. As the Russian proverb says, God knows and he ain't tellin'! (OK, so it's a colloquial translation, but it made Mom laugh.)

Pray for us all - it's been a helluva year.

Sick - phooey!

Started out as a normal day - got up, dragged my sleepy self into some clothes, fetched the paper... Then the bug hit - pesky little GI bug that had me making 5 or 6 trips to the bathroom in less than an hour. Thinking it was simply a matter of too much of a good thing at dinner last night, I debated going into work anyway - spent all day yesterday moving desks and getting reorganized, not doing any actual work - but decided not to risk it. That turned out to be the right decision, as I later realized I'm also running a low-grade fever.

I'm just glad I didn't get this last week - I would have had to pass on going to MuMu's for Thanksgiving, as I couldn't risk infecting her, or the Chief's brother, for that matter.

I had to cancel my voice lesson, which was disappointing, as I missed last week because we were headed for Thanksgiving with the Chief's family. Now it'll be a 3-week gap between lessons. At least it gives me more time to make duplicates of some of my repertory candidates, and maybe even work on memorizing some of 'em. Not today, though; I've got all the energy of an overcooked noodle.

And I find myself doing my usual: "I'm home today anyway, so I'll have time to do X and Y and Z." Time, yes; energy, no. As I have to remind myself, the reason I'm home is that I'm not up to working; that includes attempting to be productive at home.

Having fun dirtying dishes

Another food-producing weekend - salmon spread after we got home yesterday afternoon, with leftovers for dinner. Today was the big push - an "experimental" pot roast, testing how good it is without the 1750mg-of-sodium onion soup mix; butternut squash soup (huge batch - filled 5 4-cup containers, so 1.25 gallons); and pumpkin pie.

The pot roast had 1 lb. of mushrooms to about the same amount of meat - good gravy! It tasted different without the flavored-sodium "soup mix", but the mushrooms & canned (low-sodium) mushroom soup, we got a lot of great gravy. I also tried a slightly different cut of meat, with less fat; good choice. I'll have to remember to get the loin pot roast instead of chuck roast next time the Chief wants pot roast.

Tomorrow I'll make a batch of veggie-beef soup to use up the shredded cabbage I didn't use in the squash soup. Some of that will go to one of the neighbors, some to the freezer. If I had any yeast in the house, I'd be tempted to make some bread to go with it.

I shouldn't have to do much more than reheat stuff for dinner the rest of the week, as we now have enough food on hand for a siege: leftover pot roast from Monday, enough "experimental" pot roast for one person, a bit of turkey left over from Thanksgiving with the Chief's family, salmon spread, squash soup, veggie-beef soup by tomorrow night, and fixings for the usual "vat o' salad" that I take to work for lunch. And except for the pumpkin pie, it's all healthy, too!

The Chief spent at least 3 hours raking leaves, yet volunteered to do all the dishes I dirtied in the course of my cooking fit - what a guy!

Kitchen diva

I spent most of Saturday in the kitchen - baked & pureed a pumpkin and 2 butternut squash, the usual vat o' salad for lunches, got a pot roast going in the crock pot. The pumpkin was particularly labor-intensive, as the strings & seeds didn't want to let go and the pumpkin "meat" was a little dry, making it harder to puree. It had a lovely deep color, though, so I'll be making a pumpkin pie next weekend. (That's the problem with going to someone else's house for Thanksgiving - no leftovers.)

The butternut squash were much more cooperative. They have far less to scrape out, for one thing, and these were just moist enough to puree beautifully. I'm looking forward to making soup with them this weekend and freezing at least half of it for future meals.

I always sautee the mushrooms that go into the pot roast, which makes the cooking meat smell even better. Between that and the baked squashes, our kitchen smelled very good indeed this weekend.

I think this coming weekend may rival it, though. The Chief wants me to try a low-sodium variation of the pot roast recipe (it's a huge favorite of his, so he won't suffer by having it again so soon), and of course I'm planning to make pumpkin pie and butternut squash soup. I'm making myself hungry just thinking about it. ;)

Adventures in blocking

Yesterday was our first blocking rehearsal and our director decided to start out with some movement since, as she noted, auditions hadn't included a dance or movement sequence. A little bit of grapevine, then a bit of very basic charleston, in groups small enough that she could watch everyone in them. I was doing pretty well, but the soles on my character shoes were obviously slicker than I realized, as my left heel suddenly shot out from under me. It must have looked like something right out of an old cartoon - felt like my heel went forward and up! I landed on my left, er, padding and caught myself w/ my left hand. Hurt like crazy at first, but after a while I was OK. I took something for it last night and again this morning, just in case.

This afternoon, though, the wrist started getting a little achey so I stopped by a drugstore on the way home to get a brace. Nothing serious - no metal strips or anything like that - just enough to provide a little support and remind me to baby the wrist for a bit.

Who says rehearsals are boring? That little pratfall certainly got everyone stirred up! All the more reason to replace my character shoes, which have always made my feet hurt anyway. Next weekend's To Do list just got "Buy new character shoes" added to it.

Methinks I need a copier.

I've recently bought several songs from musicnotes.com for potential audition, recital or "future reference" repertory pieces (I may yet put a cabaret together), and there's a how-to book of 1920s and 1930s hairstyles I want to download & print for LBH. Either I run to the local Kinko's competitor to make copies of some of these things and get the book printed & bound, or I invest in a better printer that will do 2-sided copies, among other things.

Oh. what a beautiful weekend!

The Chief & I got out to the cabin this weekend; first time I'd been there since the beginning of October. We had unseasonably mild weather - highs in the 60s! - and sun. Still a few leaves on most of the trees, with some sugar maples & burning bush retaining enough leaves to look spectacular in direct sunlight!

I treated myself to a much-needed massage on Saturday. I hadn't realized how knotted up I was until my favorite massage therapist started untying them; some of my muscles still ache a little from holding those knots for so long. I'm hoping to get out to the cabin again sometime in December, in which case I'll definitely try to book another massage. And maybe I'll get another one to get the new year off to a good start...

I also stopped by our nurseryman out there to get some more compost and have a bit of a visit.

The Chief & I did a bit of antiquing before evening mass, then ended up going out to dinner instead of having left-overs. He enjoyed his bison burger and I had a very good portobella cap sandwich with melted goat cheese and fried (!) spinach on it.

Today I headed home early enough to go over to DB's and help him get 250 spring bulbs into the ground; housewarming present for his new house. He said narcissi remind him of his mom, so it's a good thing we had more of those (63, assorted) than about anything else. I had also bought him 60 assorted crocus bulbs, 20 assorted mini-irises, 17 red tulips and 10 snowdrops. I told him I'll probably want to swing by several times during the spring to see how everything comes up. Several of the narcissus bulbs were doubles; as I told him, those are two-fers.

Still had plenty of daylight left when I zipped home to get a shower and some lunch before rehearsal. We sound pretty darn good already, and it's fun to watch our MD's face when we hit a particularly meaty passage - he lights up at the richness of the sound. Helping that is the fact that another show he's directing, which is in tech this week, has a much smaller cast and therefore a smaller sound.

I got home to find the Chief starting dinner (the leftovers we passed on last night), so we had a nice, cozy dinner a deux and a quiet evening at home. Lovely end to a lovely weekend.

Does anyone know...

Does anyone happen to know how the Gallup pollsters managed to get my cellphone number when it's on the Do Not Call list? This is the first time I've gotten a call on that number that wasn't family, friends or the occasional wrong number. (There's this lovely woman somewhere in southern Virginia whose friend or relative has a number that's just one digit off mine. Every so often, she misdials and gets me instead.) I tried to cut the guy off politely - he's just doing his job, after all, and wasn't rude or otherwise ill-behaved - but I haven't slept well the past few nights because of this cold I'm getting, so it was hard not to get crabby about it.

What a lovely day for a stroll

Saturday was chilly but sunny so the Chief decided we should ignore our respective "honey do" lists and take a day trip, or at least a half-day trip. We ended up at one of the lovelier campuses in the area, though we couldn't tour the historic chapel because they seemed to be tag-teaming weddings in there. We did get to stroll past the older buildings, admire the "superintendent's" lovely gardens, watch a tour group led by a costumed docent, and treated ourselves to a nice lunch at a restaurant with pub aspirations and some excellent crab cakes. We got home in plenty of time for an early dinner and movie at home.

No, we haven't caught up on our domestic duties yet, but it was nice to kick off the traces and have a date.

Cooking up a storm

Sunday was a major "kitchen goddess" day. Between church and rehearsal I fixed a pan of brownies, some spinach/chick pea stew and a big pot of vegetarian bolognese sauce (a huge eggplant, 1 lb. of carrots and 1/2 lb. diced mushrooms were the principle ingredients), so that the kitchen smelled absolutely fantastic by the time I left for rehearsal. When I got home, I then fixed some salmon spread and a pot of meat sauce, which tastes good both on its own and mixed with the eggplant sauce. Got a hungry army? We've got enough food to feed one! Well, OK, maybe not an army, maybe just a platoon. Or one hungry teenage boy.