Lasagna Night!!

I'm discovering more and more that I am completely becoming my mother: I cry at the drop of the hat, I can't stand the sound of other people chewing loudly, and I apparently have good instincts in the kitchen.

My mother had what I've always considered an amazing ability in the kitchen. She could take whatever random ingredients were in the house, and with hardly a thought, turn them into an incredible meal. Some of my favorite dinners came out of those moments. And while I haven't been brave enough to wander completely away from my cook book, I find myself being able to take liberties and adapt recipes to create my own signature dishes. Jon's new favorite Mexican bean salad being one of those dishes. Tonight's experiment--lasagna with a bit of a Greek twist.


I began with a box of oven-ready lasagna noodles and the recipe on the back. For the most part, I followed that recipe with the following twists. I didn't use meat in the sauce. Ground beef definitely wasn't on sale this week. Instead of the seasoning they added to the ricotta, I added my new favorite Greek seasoning blend. I can't even remember where I found it, but this stuff is fabulous. I also added a layer of feta cheese on top of the ricotta with a layer of spinach on that (that would be where the Greek twist comes in). A little more feta thrown on top before a nice layer of mozzarella.







Mmmmmmmmmm. Tasty











It turned out pretty darn good, but there are a few things I would change for next time:
1. Because I didn't use meat sauce, the layers turned out pretty thin. So I'm thinking add either more layers of pasta or some chopped veggies.
2. My Greek influences didn't come through as well as I had hoped. You couldn't really taste the feta through the sauce. I'd like to try making my own tomato sauce to tone the flavor down a bit.

I thought it turned out pretty damn good for a first attempt at lasagna. And Jon obviously had no problems with it, so I consider it a success.

...So then I found 20 bucks

I really have absolutely nothing to write about today. But I figured since it had already been a few days since my last post, I should probably put SOMETHING in here. It reminds me of those stories you try to tell your friend that, by the time you get to the end, you realize that your story had no point whatsoever and no one but you is going to think that it's funny. So you have to come up with something to finish up the story so it doesn't completely suck. You end up saying something completely random like "and then I found 20 bucks" or "and then I was attacked by a bear." Some obviously work better than others.

Watching some Family Guy right now. I love that show. Especially when they make Jesus jokes. I like pretty much like any show that can make a good Jesus joke. I figure that Jesus would have appreciated a good joke. I think people take religion in general way too seriously. I think Jesus would agree. I think he would want us to be leading good, thoughtful, and loving lives and not be worrying about all this other crap.

Talk about random.

My problem solving, economy saving, life as an adult

A busy busy week leaves very little time for writing. However this extremely busy week has generated several amusing stories in my failed attempts at being an adult.

I thought I had been doing really well to remember all of the little things that I needed to gather, send out, change, and all that other good stuff. I've been finishing up the last few loose ends this week and ran into a very important forgotten item. I never picked up any stamps. Oh well, big deal, right? I go to the store the next day and buy some stamps. I spend most of the evening being all snazy and responsible. As I'm finishing up all of the documents that need to be mailed, I realize I never thought to get any envelopes. So attempt number two at mailing things=FAIL. I was quickly coming up on three strikes here. Luckily, I know some resourceful people at work who rounded me up some envelopes the next morning, so at least everything got mailed out on time.

Laundry also became a very interesting ordeal. I figured that since every other location I've washed clothes at had fairly modern machinery that I would be dealing with similar equipment once I moved into this building. Low and behold, the machines in the laundry room are straight out of the 70's. They might as well be antiques. So I was completely illequiped. The first issue--fabric softener. I am a huge fabric softener fan. I want every article of my clothing to smell like mountain rain and lilacs damn it! Well these machines didn't have one of those handy dandy fabric soften dispensers. I had to wait until the rinse cycle, and of course...I missed it. (I went out and bought a Downy ball so this would never happen again.) I moved my clothes into the nearest dryer, and since every other commercial dryer I've used gets way too hot, I turned the heat down a notch. When I returned to retrieve my clothes, not a single item was even close to dry. At that point, I definitely decided that I wanted my mommy back, and she definitely appreciated hearing that in the morning.

The last few days have definitely brought some fun with them too. We spent last night out by Kelly and EJ moving them into their new apartment. It is very nice to have them back in the midwest. This evening, we definitely did our share of economic stimulation at Target. In gathering up all of the things that we definitely still "needed," we managed to spend more money at Target than I think we have ever spent before. And to make ourselves feel better about it, we split it up between both of our debit cards :-) The way I see it, we are just doing our part to make the world a better place, but instead of saving the rain forest, I am determined to single-handedly save the economy.

Goddess of the Kitchen...well, sort of.

I am completely and totally falling in love with living in this apartment.

Tonight was my first major culinary adventure. (The waffles from Sunday morning really didn't count. They were much too easy.) My parents were coming out to drop some of my stuff off, so I figured the least I could do was make them dinner. I pulled one of the weight watchers recipes that I've been saving--crusted honey mustard chicken. Definitely not the most difficult recipe in the world, but it didn't come in a box, so I was stepping it up a notch. Spent some time at the new grocery store orienting myself. I couldn't find anything without walking up and down the aisles at least four times. Why can't they make all stores the same? Anyways, I was able to gather all ingredients and execute the recipe with minimal assistance. The only part I ran into trouble with was with the chicken breasts. What I thought was the typical boneless, skinless chicken breast Jon usually stocks the fridge with, turned out to be bone-in chicken breast halves. Not very conducive to my kitchen skills. Jon came to my rescue as I struggle with a very dangerous knife to separate the chicken from the bone. But other than that, I did everything on my own. Everyone seemed to enjoy it, and I definitely did. I even managed to save a piece for lunch tomorrow so I can show off my superior kitchen skills at work!

Ladies and Gentleman, I am now a domesticated being, and a damn snazy one at that!

Amazingly, as resistant to this whole moving ordeal Jon has been, he just professed that it is "pretty damn cool" to have our own space. Would I steer you wrong, darling?

Update

I haven't been doing very well with the 1 post everyday thing so far. In my defense, I haven't had internet all weekend. So I guess I'm not doing so bad here.

We moved into the new apartment this weekend. Everything went really well. All our stuff was moved in faster than I thought, so massive thanks to all that helped. I'm still slightly amazed at how much crap I have accumulated over the years and how I was ever able to fit it all into my room. Almost everything is unpacked at set up, amazingly. However, we are still lacking cable and internet (thank you AT&T and your brilliant service technicians!!). I would have been fine without cable--we weren't even planning on getting cable to begin with, since you can pretty much watch everything online anyways--but not having internet all weekend was driving me CRAZY! Apparently my brain thinks that if I miss one small update, the word will end. Hopefully, the guy from Comcast will have been, installed, and gone by the time I get home tonight. I'm not too happy about getting Comcast, but apparently AT&T's service is just as bad.

Adventures in Toastmasters, episode 1

Here is the speech I gave in Toastmasters today. It could have gone better. I finished it just last night and had no time to practice. Not the best example of my writing either, but when you only have 5-7 minutes to speak, you can't really elaborate very much. The objective was to organize a speech: intro, body, and conclusion.

By now, I’m sure you’ve all heard about Facebook. I was actually one of the first people to ever use Facebook. Back then, it was only for college students. Your college had to be on the list, and you had to have a working email from that school. It was meant as a place for college students to stay connected and share information: find used text books and rides home, stuff like that. Of course, the only thing it was really good for was stalking your classmates. Facebook has changed a great deal since then. Now there are even more sites--MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn--to name just a few. These sites are all part of the social media phenomenon. Social media has given us all new ways to keep in touch with our friends and families, but as all of these sites evolve, they also create a great way for businesses to keep in touch with their customers. They provide a fast and cheap way of communicating new information while getting almost instantaneous feedback. So today I’m going to share with you some information on three major types of social media--blogging, miroblogging (more commonly known as Twitter), and the multipurpose sites like Facebook--and the new opportunities these sites create for businesses to interact with their customers.

Blogging was one of the first forms of social media to hit the scene. A blog is basically an online journal, and there are very few limits on their content. People use them to share journal entires, poetry, and book and movie reviews. You can use them to post pictures, audio, and video content. Anybody can create a blog, and in most cases they are free to create and free for others to access. Most blogs also have an area for readers to post comments and have discussions. Blogs are a great way for businesses to communicate with their customers because you can provide as much or as little information as you want. You can use it as a place to advertise new products or events. A blog created for Intelliconnect, for example, could feature articles that alert customers of new content or features being introduced, possibly even preview some of that content. Blogs can also be used to educate the customer. My fiance works in marketing for a life insurance brokerage. They use their blog, not so much to advertise their own services, but to provide free information on how to choose life insurance. By doing this, they build trust in their customers while getting their name out. And because blogs feature a comments section, as soon as you post an entry, you can start gathering feedback from your customers.

Another form of social media that more and more businesses are taking advantage of is micro-blogging, the most common form being Twitter. Micro-blogging consists of short and frequent information updates answering the question “what are you doing?” Micro-blogging pages like Twitter let users follow each other, which basically means your friends’ updates all show up on your homepage. Companies can use micro-blogging as another quick way to provide updates to the customer. Many companies I follow use it as a way to direct people to new blog entires they may have. And what really makes this valuable to businesses is that followers can retweet content, which means that they take the information from your update and post it on their own profile, allowing all of their followers to see it. All of a sudden the business’s message is spreading like wildfire. Because the updates are usually short and informal, businesses tend to develop a more personal relationship with their followers. One of the more effective Twitter business profiles I’ve seen is Southwest Airlines. They communicate updates to their customers effectively, but they also interact with their followers, developing a better relationship and understanding with their customers.

The last type of social media that I’ll cover is what I like to call the do-it-all pages, Facebook and MySpace being the most prominent. These sites allow users to create a profile that includes background and contact information, a section for entries very similar to a blog, and status updates very similar to the micro-blogging updates. You can also post things on other peoples’ pages. All users are given a news feed that updates anytime a friend has a new post or status update. The profiles on these sites continue to be very personal in use, but where businesses can really take advantage of these sites is with the fan pages. Fan pages allow you to create a very similar profile where you can post news updates, keep a calendar with upcoming events, and gather followers. You get the benefits of both blogging and micro-blogging plus more, all within the same page. Your fans will see updates in their news feed, can RSVP to upcoming events, invite their friends to become fans, and make comments on the business’s fan page. It creates a highly interactive way to get in touch with your customers and gather feedback at the same time.

Because there are so many social media websites out there, in order to really reap the benefits, a business would need to use a combination of these sites. And while it seems a bit daunting to keep up with, as all of these sites evolve, there are more ways to synch up different accounts. I have my accounts set up so that any update I make on Twitter is automatically sent to my Facebook page, and when I make a new post in my blog both my Twitter and Facebook accounts send out a link to the new entry. It takes a bit of training, but by becoming familiar with the different types of social media, businesses open themselves up to a wealth of opportunities to strengthen relationships with customers. So the next time you catch your kids on Facebook at all hours of the night, just think of it as career training.

Graphophobia

I am a writer with a fear of writing.

I am afraid what I write won't be good.

I am afraid what I write won't be perfect.

I am afraid what I write won't live up to my own ridiculously high standards.

I am afraid what I write won't be liked.

I am afraid what I write won't make sense.

I am afraid what I write won't be useful.

I am afraid what I write won't be meaningful.

I am a writer crippled by the fear of writing.

My new challenge: In order to get over my apparent fear of writing, I'm going to make myself write something here everyday, no matter how random. Hopefully, by writing enough, I will eventually find my voice again. Any helpful hints and suggestions are always welcome. Lord knows I need a new blog title.

My Top Ten

My friend and I are currently working on a project we are calling the Happy Book. It will be a collection of things that make us happy, so that when we find ourselves in a rut--in one of those places where everything seems to go wrong and you just can't find the joy in life--we can open the book and hopefully find something that will bring us back to a happier mindset.

As part of my happy book, I'm trying to come up with my top ten list. No specific topic. Just a compilation of the ten things that make me really happy right now. I think it is probably a good thing for everyone to try to do at some point. So here it goes...

...Oh, and just a warning, some of these will probably get extremely mushy and sentimental...

10. A really good inside joke--If you've ever had one, you know what I'm talking about. It's the kind of joke that only takes a few words or the right look on someone's face to send you into hysterics. It's enough to turn around any bad day.

9. Surprises (the good kind)--Outwardly, I have always hated surprises, mostly because my fiance purposely tortures me every time he is trying to surprise me. But secretly, I love the excitement that comes from even the smallest surprises.

8. Reading a book that makes the world disappear--For me it is a very indulgent kind of escapism because it is so hard to find the time to get that into a book.

7. The way my dog greets me when I get home--She gets so excited every time I walk through the door. If she doesn't make it to the door by the time I get through it, she's waiting on the back of the couch, which she knows I'll have to walk past to get to my room. It is great to have someone get so excited to see you.

6. Finding something that makes me cry (in a good way, of course)--Movies, stories, songs, Hallmark commercials. I love anything that can touch me enough to make me cry. I spend so much of my day trying to function that I love being able to just feel for a bit instead.

5. Lou Malnati's deep dish pizza--It is my all time, hands down, favorite food. When they started shipping frozen pizzas around the country, my mom would send them to me at school for my birthday.

4. Those rare occasions when I can sit around in my pajamas and do nothing all day and not feel guilty--Life has become so stressful that even when I have the opportunity to just relax, I feel guilty about not doing anything productive. But very rarely, I can sit around and do nothing and feel absolutely no guilt whatsoever. Recently my friends and I had a celebration of these very same moments. We all ditched work on a Friday, met up at one girl's apartment, and did absolutely nothing productive. It was AWESOME!

3. Knowing people who bring out my favorite self--I don't believe that anyone has a "true self" that once they find it, they can be their true self with anyone they are around. I believe that a person has many selves (all of them just as true as the next), and that these selves are naturally affected by the people around them. I have several friends that bring out my favorite self--the one that is unguarded, laughs a lot, and has so much to look forward to.

2. A really really good conversation--I'm not exactly sure how to describe what a good conversation is for me. All I know is that once I've had one, I feel like I've really accomplished something, no matter how trivial the topic.

1. Knowing what love is--And I'm not talking about that Hollywood romance crap. I've felt that type of "love." It never lasted and it always left me feeling completely empty. The kind of love I'm talking about takes work, but it is so worth working for. It fills you up rather than takes away. This kind of love is more of an experience than a feeling. It's definitely not as glamorous, but I'm eternally grateful that this is the type of love that I have found.

I can't get on your change-train when you keep trying to throw me off the caboose!

Today at work, everyone received a full-color, elaborately (and terribly) laid-out magazine to advertise the companies new "Customer Focus." I'm assuming this is related to our VP's new mission statement and his call for us to jump on the "change-train" of this new company culture they have been pushing. There have been many changes since I started working here and NONE of them make me want to get behind the success of the company.

For example, we were recently notified that, because of growing concerns that our customers will be badly effected by the economy, the company will be trying to be conservative in their spending and will be reducing our 3% maximum merit raises to 1%. Now I know that there are many people who are not getting raises at all, taking pay cuts, or losing their jobs altogether, but how can I believe that the company is concerned about their spending when I am receiving full color laminated posters with the mission statement to replace the full color poster that I already received, a new color name plate to go under my existing name plate outside my cube, very large full color posters internally advertising the launch of our new web platform that we are all working our butts off to prepare (it's not like we don't know it's coming), and now this wonderful internal magazine that they recommend we show to friends and relatives. They have never given us anything like this before in the year and 3 months I've been working here. Does this seem like a conservative spending move?

Of course they won't have to be worrying about paying us for long since they have been planning for over a year now to move our department somewhere they can pay someone half as much as us for the same work (first it was Malaysia, now Arkansas). Yet we are constantly criticized for not getting behind the company goals.

If only this company could realized that they need to stop being entirely hypocitical and stop treating us all like children, they wouldn't be alienating so much of the talent that they desperately need right now.