Exam

Results became available today.

I did not pass.

Roasted Chiptole Chicken

This takes 10 minutes active time and 40 minutes cooking time. It is 7 hot on my scale of 1-10.
Serves 2.

2 chicken breasts (cook time assumes frozen)
1/2 can Cream of Soup
1/2 small can chiptole peppers in adobo sauce chopped (roughly 3)
1/2 cup water
1-2 cups cooked rice (I used my rice cooker - started it 10 minutes after
the chicken starts cooking)
1 cup bell peppers cut into strips
1/8 cup onion cut into strips

Mix the soup, water and chiptole peppers (and some adobo sauce). Place the frozen chicken into a casserole pan and coat with the soup mix. Throw in the oven for 40 minutes at 400F.

(meanwhile, cook the rice)

Five minutes before the chicken time is up, saute the bell pepper and onion strips with some cooking spray (if the peppers are frozen, rinse the ice off and dry them or they will be soggy when they cook)

When the chicken is ready (no longer pink inside) toss the peppers in with the chicken to coat with sauce. Then place the chicken/sauce/pepper over the rice and serve.

You could probaby throw the peppers and onions in the casserole with the chicken to cut out the saute step, but I like mine to brown on the edges and be a little crispy.

Dad's Day

FARMING:

I planted some basil, jalapeno, dill, bell pepper, and thyme. I give them a couple of months. I always plant something every year. It always symbolically dies.

MUSIC:

I listened to some Woodie Guthrie Dust Bowl songs.

SWEETS:

I had Mark take me out for a Root Beer Freeze and ate a candy bar.

WORK:

I did some household stuff that I've been procrastinating.

Golden

Mom & Dad M.~

Happy

50th

Anniversary!!!

Mo's Noodles

I just made up this pasta recipe today. It was very awesome. (Serves 2)

Thin Spagetti (about a cup cooked)
1 Herbed Chicken breast (boneless/skinless - I buy the kind that has herbs on it before it is frozen... un-herbed would probably be just as good)

In a frying pan or on an indoor grill, cook the chicken and chop
meanwhile, cook the spagetti according to directions on box.
meanwhile, in a saute pan mix and heat just until warm:
2 T chopped onion
2 chopped garlic cloves
2 chopped leaves of fresh basil
2 sun dried tomatoes
1 chopped tomato
2 chopped artichoke bottoms
2 T olive oil (I keep olive oil on hand that has been soaking in hot red peppers for a long time - makes it red and gives it some heat)

Toss in the chopped chicken and cooked spagetti to cover and serve. Start to finish, this takes about 20 minutes.

Hair Day

I am scanning all these old photos and got inspired to try to do my hair like Grandma Oma's in the 30's. It was fun, so I took a picture of myself:

Salt Water

I had heard recommendations to gargle salt water for a sore throat but I never tried it until now. WOW. Instant relief.

Rice

I usually don't eat rice, because I've always thought... it's hard to cook properly and tastes sort of bland for the effort.

Enter my new cheap-o rice cooker. Yay. My dinner is so yummy.

Also, fresh parsley bunches are only 25-50 cents and you chop a little of that into anything (except cookies) and it will taste good.

Cords

I filed for graduation certification today and received my honors cords that I will wear. (Mine are the gold for Magna Cum Laude.) I am excited for it to be over. I can't say I have "senior-itis" because I had that last year. It's a more complex now because I know there are a lot of great things about being in school that I will miss and I can't wait to miss them.

Beta

I switched to the newer version of blogger called "Beta." It has a lot of upgrades, but it is still kind of incomplete, so there are moments of technical wonder when something goes how it is supposed to.

I've been getting my tech on in a big way recently. It's kind of exciting to tackle intimidating things.

I've also decided to redirect my scrapbooking enthusiasm to the scrapbooking page I created: Some people might not appreciate that particular art form... while others would love to read about it and see my layouts... so now I'm offering that choice. It's fun, but I realize that it is not for everyone.

Laid Out

I just found an excellent gallery of scrapbooking pages for inspiration. Note that I created a webpage for my scrapbook pages linked from this page.

I am switching from sleeping afternoons to sleeping mornings and my body is roundly rejecting the idea. Which basically means that I am switching from sleeping afternoons to not sleeping. I don't recommend this kind of lifestyle change. There are a couple of things I really love and can't live without: coffee, eating, and sleep.

I haven't posted because this tired version of me is pretty lethargic and uninteresting - not to mention grumpy.

School is going well. I am keeping up with my classes even though my attendance due to the sleep problems has been worse than I usually allow. I am learning the most helpful-to-life formulas on comparing interest and growth rates on investments, loans, and other financial instruments.

The countdown until I get my score from the Actuary exam is down to 3 1/2 weeks left.

Me tired.