February 2010

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A Child After My Own Heart

February 25, 2010 in Food, Friends by Sara | 3 comments

Katie, Chef Lily and Elena

Lily is the child of two of our very dearest friends, Kate and Eric. About a year ago, she was sick and home on the couch. She started watching Food Network and her life changed forever. She became a cooking machine. I knew she had the food bug bad when her mom told me she had asked for a microplaner and a lemon squeezer for Christmas. Did I mention she is a sixth grader? And the story I love best is that on Christmas morning when she opened the box that contained her new grill pan, she actually hugged it to her chest.

Love that kid.

So when her mom told me about a new recipe Lily had tried that involved bacon, sausage and leeks, well you just bet your life I had to try it. So I asked Lily and her folks over last night and I gave the recipe a try. It was heavenly. Perfect for a gray winter day (so tired of gray winter days, by the way).

Lily said that mine was just as good as hers. But she wouldn’t have said otherwise.

She’s sweet that way.

Cassoulet Stoup from Rachel Ray

Ingredients

1 tablespoon EVOO – Extra Virgin Olive Oil
4 slices thick-cut bacon, chopped
1 pound chicken, pork or lamb sausage, casings removed
1 onion, chopped
2 leeks, cleaned and thinly sliced
1 carrot, peeled and chopped
3 to 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped or grated
6 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves removed
1 bay leaf
Salt and ground black pepper

2 tablespoons tomato paste
1/2 cup white wine
1 15-ounce can white beans, drained
4 cups chicken stock
4 tablespoons butter
5 to 6 slices stale crusty bread, like a baguette
1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Yields: 4 servings

Preparation

Place a heavy-bottomed soup pot over medium-high heat with 1 turn of the pan of EVOO, about 1 tablespoon. Add the bacon to the pan and cook until golden brown and crispy, 4-5 minutes. Remove the bacon from the pan with a slotted spoon and reserve on a paper towel-lined plate.

Brown the sausage in the same pan, breaking it up with a potato masher or back of a spoon as it cooks, 5-6 minutes. Add the onion, leeks, carrot, garlic, thyme and bay leaf to the pan, season with salt and pepper, and cook until the veggies are tender, 5-6 minutes.

Add the tomato paste to the pan and cook until golden brown and aromatic, about 1 minute. Add the white wine and cook, scraping up any bits that are stuck to the bottom of the pot, until reduced by half.

Add the white beans and stock to the pan, and bring up to a bubble. Simmer the soup until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes.

While the soup is simmering, place a medium skillet over medium-high heat with the butter. While the butter is melting, grind up the bread into coarse breadcrumbs in a food processor. Transfer the crumbs to the pan and toast them in the melted butter until golden brown, 3-4 minutes. Stir in the parsley and reserve. SKIP THIS PART AND MISS ONE OF THE BEST FOOD EXPERIENCES OF YOUR LIFE!!! (emphasis mine)

Serve the soup with some of the breadcrumbs and a sprinkle of the reserved crispy bacon on the top.

Insecurity: Lessons Learned: Week One

February 23, 2010 in Book Club, Faith by Sara | 2 comments

In my heart I was continuing to resist the idea that I have any significant insecurity. I’m almost 47 years old for Pete’s sake. I have a good marriage, two great kids, a job I enjoy and more friends that I should have. What in the world do I have to be insecure about?

My high school and college years? Now you’re talking insecurity. Lord have mercy. I feel so sorry for the girls and women who were my friends in those days. My insecurity made me do some pretty hurtful things to them. I cringe even as I write that sentence and the memories come back to me.

I honestly thought I’d grown out of it. I’ve certainly learned how to be a good friend to the girlfriends in my life. I no longer envy everything about absolutely everybody else. I know that even the most perfect looking people and relationships have their issues. Everyone is struggling with something. So why should I be any more insecure than the next gal?

But there were a couple of things in this weeks reading that stopped me dead in my tracks. Beth was talking about an insecurity inventory she took and here are a couple of questions from it.

Do you find yourself apologizing and trying to make things okay even if you were on the right side of an argument?

Does it bother you when people don’t like you?

Uh. Yes and Yes.

It kills me when a relationship of mine hits a turbulent patch. I don’t like it one bit. I obsess over it. Wonder what I could have done differently. Start feeling like a terrible friend and a worse Christian.

It ruins my day.

Make that days.

Make that weeks.

And here is the funny part. Or sad part. I don’t know which.

It bleeds into other areas of my life. Makes me doubt all kinds of crazy things. Question friendships and motives and everything else in the world.

There is no doubt in my mind that I’m reading this book in this season of my life for a reason. I think I need to examine this part of me and deal with it once and for all.

I’ve been kidding myself. Those insecurities of my youth hadn’t really gone away. They merely changed shape and name.

Anyone else gain any insight into themselves this week?

Home Again

February 22, 2010 in Friends, Time Goes By, Travel by Sara | 1 comment

Once upon a time, I wrote a little piece about time passing by in my old neighborhood. We were soon to be moving from DC to Ohio and I was feeling nostalgic and in a reflective mood.

I’ve moved enough to know that time does not stop just because we have moved away. Life keeps moving and the space that you once occupied is filled with new people and new commitments.

But if you are very lucky, (and we are), you can return to the places that you lived and for a short time it feels as if you never left. Friends welcome you back with open arms and cleared calendars. Dinners are planned and lovingly prepared. Children are gathered close and kissed on top of the head. Girlfriends gather and talk resumes as if it had just stopped the day before. Babies that were born just days to weeks after we left are cuddled and tickled. Beloved teachers are visited with and old school friends become reacquainted in no time at all.

We had a wonderful week (and yes, the snow DC had was just as crazy as you heard). We look forward to our next visit with great anticipation.

But a nice thing happened when we drove back into our neighborhood here. Each of us was glad to be home. The girls anxious to go back to school and see their friends, JD and I ready to go back to work and for life to resume it’s familiar routine. For while we would gladly gather up each and everyone of our friends from our time in DC and move them right next door, we were not feeling the pull to live there again. It was a wonderful experience, but the traffic and congestion are things that we gladly leave behind. It seemed like another affirmation that we made the right move by coming here.

We’ll keep talking it up to our friends left behind. Who knows, we may talk one or two of them into trying out the midwest.

Or at least coming out for a long weekend.

I’m Just So Nervous

February 19, 2010 in TV and Movies by Sara | 1 comment

I have a few things to say about this past week. It’s been busy and wonderful in many ways.

But I can’t put two words together because

FOR HEAVEN’S SAKE!!!

What is Johnnie Weir’s costume going to look like tonight! I ‘m not sure he can beat the pink and black corset he had on two nights ago, but we’ll see……

There is something slightly disturbing about him, don’t you think?

My money is on the dude that was dressed like a crow for the sort program.

What’s with all the feathers this year?

So I’ll be holding my breath while quads are attempted and falls are taken. And perhaps while feathers are shed and tassels shaken.

See you next week.

Happy weekend.

Insecure? Who? Me?

February 17, 2010 in Book Club, Faith by Sara | 2 comments

Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a huge Beth Moore fan. In fact, at our last church, my womens bible study group called me a groupie.

Yes. Yes I am.

About a year ago I heard that Beth was writing a new book about insecurity. Eh, I thought. That’s not really my problem. I’ll just wait for the next book.

But everywhere I’ve turned in the last two weeks, I’ve been hearing about it, or seeing it in the bookstore, or hearing an interview about it. I have not been able to get away from it.

Yet, I resisted. Because insecurity? It is not my problem.

So imagine my surprise when I found myself saying to a friend who has done a couple of Beth’s previous studies with me in years past,

“Hey, Beth Moore has a new book out and she is doing an online study and I think you and I should do it.”

Excuse me, but who just took over my speech center?

My friend went out the next day and bought us both the book.

Can I say that I’ve only just read through the acknowledgements and the foreward and I’m already convinced that not only do I have some insecurities, but she may have written this book just for me.

So I’m going to do this online study. And if you have a few insecurities of your own or (most especially) if you think you don’t, I’d like you to consider doing it with me (and several thousand others).

Each Thursday Beth will post that weeks reading assignments and questions here. The first assignment is here. They are making some changes to the website to handle the expected traffic so it may look different in a couple of days. You can order the book from Amazon or pick it up at your nearest bookstore (I’ve seen it in both Christian bookstores and the regular kind).

My aim is to post at least once a week on what I’m learning. If you choose to do it alongside me, I’d love to hear what you are learning, too. We could have our own little virtual book club/bible study.

Don’t kid yourself as I was doing. We’ve all got ‘em. Isn’t it about time we learned to deal with ‘em?

My New Obsession

February 15, 2010 in TV and Movies by Sara | 4 comments

They say the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem.

I’m not sure I’m there yet.

A couple of weeks ago, I was convicted about the fact that I had not watched “Friday Night Lights”.

So I made the mistake of putting it on our Netflix instant que.

I’m pretty sure I have a problem.

Let’s just say that I found myself sneaking off every chance I could trying to watch all 22 episodes of the first season. Washing more clothes than I have to just so I could have an excuse to watch. I may have let my children play more computer games than was healthy while I locked myself in the basement. I may have even been watching it when I should have been getting ready for something that resulted in me having to run around like a chicken with it’s head cut off at the last minute.

But if you have ever loved high school football you might want to join me in my new obsession. If like me, you can still remember the glory of the 1976 football team that played for the state championship and the way it captivated a small town you’ll be sneaking off from your responsibilities, too.

Bon Appetit!

February 11, 2010 in Food by Sara | 3 comments

We watched Julie and Julia last night. I always meant to see it when it first came out, but somehow or another kept putting it off until it was gone. But JD ordered it off Netflix and we settled in to watch it.

I loved it.

Of course Meryl Streep is genius at everything she does ( I don’t even hold her being miscast in Mama Mia against her). But what I loved most was how she portrayed Julia Child’s love of food. She made no bones about it. She said that she was perhaps the only woman in Paris who enjoyed shopping for food more than shopping for clothes.

I’m with her. Clothes shopping usually just ends up with me being frustrated and a malcontent. Not so when I’m wandering the food isle at my favorite market or walking through a kitchen store. In those stores I am happy.

I love to cook. I love reading recipes and planning the menu. I love making lists of ingredients and then hunting each and every one of them down. I love the chopping and dicing and blanching and searing and the clouds of steam rising from a boiling pot. I love the smell of fresh herbs and citrus zest. I love just about everything about cooking. I don’t even mind the clean up.

It may be the one and only area of my life where I seldom doubt myself. And in a life where I’m always questioning just about everything else I do, whether it be practicing medicine or mothering or being a good wife to my husband, it’s nice to know that given the right ingredients and the right equipment, I can make something good happen almost every time.

I believe we all need something in our lives that makes us feel this way.

Wake Up Maggie, I Think I Got Something To Say To You

February 10, 2010 in Home, Marriage by Sara | 1 comment

This has been a week of technological wonderfulness at our house.

First, I managed to run over my blackberry with my car on Saturday. Likely story, you say? Yeah, so did JD. He is convinced it was an evil plot to bring even more Mac products into our house. It was an accident. I swear. You’ll remember that I managed to lose my last cell phone in our garbage disposal where it met an untimely and gruesome death, so it should surprise no one that I somehow managed to run over this one. Twice.

I looked at it this way. The universe was telling me to finally make the leap to the iPhone.

I’m in love.

However, so is JD. After coveting U-verse for months and months and months, he we decided to get it installed. You should have seen him talking techie talk with Roger, the guy who came to install it. I wish you could have seen them. Roger would look up and say something like, ” Your 87993 bits of…….lalalalala (this is where I would lose track)” and JD would get this very happy look on his face.

I got a happy look on my face because Roger looked EXACTLY like a young Rod Stewart.

I am not kidding. And the funny thing is that he TOTALLY pulled it off. He didn’t look one bit silly in spite of the 3 gallons of hair product he must have had in his hair. I’m telling you that his highlights and the volume he managed to tease out of his hair were nothing short of amazing. If only he had broken into a chorus of “Maggie Mae” I would have been sure I’d died and gone to heaven.

I’m totally regretting not getting a picture of him and his wonderful 1980’s do.

With my iPhone.

Higher Learning

February 9, 2010 in Kids by Sara | 1 comment

On Sunday we spent most of the entire day at the state Lego League Championship. Let me just say (and I can because my child was one of them) that there was a large quotient of geekiness under one roof. I’m just saying that if a bomb had hit the Nutter Center at 4pm on Sunday, an entire generation of scientists would have been wiped out.

I realized about halfway through the day that we had not taken this seriously enough. BY FAR. People around me were speaking a completely different language. I could not understand one thing they were saying. They carried charts from one area to another, seeking out the best vantage point from which to cheer on their teams. After one round, a dad looked at me and said, “I am a fan of higher learning.” (And also a fan of the high waisted pant, I surmised.)

Me? I was very busy adding apps to my new iPhone.

Evidently, I am NOT a fan of higher learning.

While we did not win anything this time, the kids had a great experience. Of course we were all disappointed. But I think that perhaps there is a good lesson in learning that sometimes even when you work very hard there will be no prize at the end. And that the pursuit of the prize was perhaps the whole point after all.

Groundhog Day

February 8, 2010 in Marriage by Sara | 3 comments

On Friday JD had to have a very minor procedure done. (He’s fine.) The doctors were nice enough to give him some conscious sedation and let me just tell you that seeing my husband completely stoned was one of the funniest things I’ve ever witnessed in my life.

While there were several recurring themes in his ramblings, this was the one that tickled me the most.

“Hey honey, how are you”

(through half closed eyes) “I’m good. Hey, did you know that my doctor used to live in Old Town Alexandria? But he and his wife didn’t like the fact that drunk people kept puking on their doorstep so they moved.”

” Yeah, well I can see why.”

At this point his eyes rolled back into his head and he started snoring.

15 minutes later he opens his eyes and says,

“Hey, did you know that my doctor used to live in Old Town Alexandria? But he and his wife didn’t like the fact that drunk people kept puking on their doorstep so they moved.”

“Oh, yeah, I can see why they would want to move.”

Head back, eyes closed.

15 minutes later:

“Hey, did you know that my doctor used to live in Old Town Alexandria?’

“Oh, really? Did they have people puking on their doorstep?”

Eyes widen: “Yeah, they did!”

Pause.

“Did I tell you that already?”

“Yep”

“Oh.”

This went on and on for the next 4 hours. It was hilarious.

It was our own little version of the movie “Groundhog Day”.

It was almost as funny as this.

Wish I’d had my video camera.

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