Carrot soup and the AIG tax

I found this email in my inbox this morning from the hubby.

Subject: "The people are finding their voice"

Body: "I think. A blog might be in order:

We're closer to a revolution than I've ever seen in this country. The people are angry, and politicians will look to appease them. Whether rational or not, they will need some appeasement. Hopefully some good comes of it like the historically politically difficult healthcare reform.
The people are angry, and are starting to care enough to demand some of what they felt powerless to effect in the past. They are finding their voice."

My response: "U wrote this?"

His response: "yes I did. Now I'm going to heat up a quart of your carrot soup for breakfast. "

I did it again

Made 6 qts of delicious carrot soup!
I froze one quart. I think my family can eat 2-3 quarts. So I need to give away 1-2 quarts.

Good things

This blog post is my mini-version of a favorite Martha Stewart Living magazine feature, a collection of random tips. Although this version is only about cooking.

1. The typical meatballs (for spaghetti and meatballs) recipe calls for meat, eggs, breadcrumbs, seasonings (salt, pepper, oregano, basil, majoram, etc.), etc. I don't always use eggs - I can take it or leave it, it doesn't make or break a recipe. My best secrets for meatballs: use a little brown sugar (or even plain white granulated will do), put in a little tomato sauce and food process tons of garlic and onions into a watery pulp and combine ingredients in a large bowl well. Once combined, form them into balls. THIS YIELDS THE MOST DELICIOUS AND BEST MEATBALLS EVER, after 8 years of experimentation. Any ground meat will do, turkey and chicken will yield more tender meatballs than beef, but they are also hard to keep together and form into a ball. You can also mix meats. Turkey with beef or beef with ground chicken works well and taste good.
2. Before having that navel orange, grab your peeler, make some zest and then freeze. I find navel oranges make the best zest. I got really mad at myself tonight for eating a navel orange without making zest - a lost opportunity!
3. I learned this from a Rachel Ray magazine - to easily peel garlic, microwave it for 10 seconds. Works like a charm, peel comes right off! I wonder if any nutrients are lost though...
4. The best roast chicken ever: combine tons of grated ginger, finely chopped garlic, orange zest a little brown sugar and soy sauce. Take a whole chicken, separate the skin from it and rub some butter between the breasts and skin. Salt between the breasts and skin and all over the outside. Peel a tangerine and squeeze the juice over and inside the chicken. Put the leftover tangerine (with mashed flesh and peel) inside the cavity. Spread your sauce of ginger et. all between the breasts and skin. And then all over and under the chicken. Bake at 500 for 20 minutes. And then 350 for 40 minutes. This yielded the most delicious and tender 4lb chicken for me. I just had it tonight. YUMMMMM!!!

Give me a break!

A few snippets from the NEW YORK AP:
"Federal prosecutors have notified a New York court that they also want the assets of Bernard Madoff's wife. In a court filing, the government said it will seek the $7 million Manhattan penthouse as well as another $62 million that Ruth Madoff had sought to keep.
Madoff's lawyers had indicated earlier that they planned to claim Ruth Madoff was entitled to keep as much as $69 million in assets.
They said the assets were not part of Madoff's fraud and that they were in her name."

Doh, where do you think she got those assets from?! I'm pretty sure there's a high probability they were ill-gotten from the scheme they were running.

Diet update

Yesterday was a pathetic performance for my diet. I ate two lunches, two dinners and didn't work out (even though it was time to). I blamed it on D for staying up late, thus throwing my timing off, causing me to eat late which prevented me from working out.
I'm not off to a good start this morning either. We just ran out of my favorite breakfast cereal so I have nothing (healthy) for breakfast. When I got to work, I started eating the only nourishment I could find, Saltines. I had two of them, ick!
Wish me luck that I don't go across the street for a decadent sausage, eggs, cheese and hash browns.
But then again, it is Shabbat. I know when I get home tonight, I will tear into that deliciously dough-y and sweet challah.
J says in order to be on a diet you have to cut out carbs. But I won't even try to do that. I think reducing all portions is more manageable and hopefully, reasonably efficient.

Sharing is caring

"Heah..." S says, handing over a small handful of found booty (cheerios) to her sister.
"You can have some. But that's it. Or else you will get diarrhea," she warns her sister.

Conversation at Trader Joe's

I told S to let me wear her pink plastic ring bc I was afraid she
might lose it in the store. Surprisingly she handed over her ring
agreeably and remarked, "You wear my ring cuz you're married to me."

In the parking lot S said to me, I like cheese so much, like mice. "

I feel like I have to go around with a tape recorder. Gems are
frequently dropping left and right.

Wonder what goes on in their heads

Last night before she went to bed, S says to me, "Mom, wanna know why I love you?"
"Why?"
"Cuz you're my friend."
So I tell her, "Do you want to know why I love you? Because you're my daughter and you're very special to me."
Not to be outdone, she replies, "You're my daughter too, Mom!"

This morning, she was so excited as she jumped into me and said, "Mom, I love you in the world!"
And I said, "Aren't you missing something in that sentence?"
Then she exuberantly replied, "Mom, I love you on the top of the world!"

Day two

Day 2 of the diet and I think I only need to undo two buttons instead of the buttons and the zipper on my size 6 pants. YAY!

Couple that loses together stays together

Or 300 lbs of looooooooooooooooooove...............

My husband has agreed to go on a diet and weight loss plan with me. The first step is the dreaded weigh-in. So we got on the scale together, held hands and closed our eyes briefly.

294.6
296.5
299.3
295.6

We did it 4 times and those were the results. I guess our scale is a little funky.

Any way, we're going to work as a team so we won't know how much each member is pulling their weight, hehehehehe.

I think we're going to try to eat less, eat healthier and exercise more. I haven't decided how frequently to do the weighings. Two co-workers told me that they weigh themselves daily, it was the only way to stay disciplined. When I heard that, I scoffed. But look where I am now.

Sadie's husband, Haman

Last night, before she went to sleep, she told me again she loved her husband, Haman.
And she was going to work on turning him good. But if that didn't work, then she was going to get a whale to eat him up. And then with her mouth wide open, she made a loud, grunting eating sound.

Extra Recession Pounds (but not the good, ie monetary kind)

It's 3:30 and I'm dying for a snack but I have to control myself and find other ways to stave off my pre-conditioned all-day hunger because as of now, I'm on the first diet of my life. How did I get here? I don't normally like to talk about my weight but tough times call for super transparency, so here goes.

Starting around last year, every time I saw a picture of myself, it was unusually unflattering or let me blunt, I thought I looked fat. Either my face seemed puffy or my behind looked rather large. I kept thinking it was a bad angle, or poor sleep, or a poorly planned outfit, or blamed some other temporary, external factor. I was really so creative and generous with myself! And the few times I got myself on a scale, it was somewhat of a surprise. First it was 118lbs. I thought, hey not bad, 5lbs above my pre-pregnant/wedding weight, I can live with that and wear it respectably. Then it climbed up to 122. And I thought, oh I'm getting my period, it's all this water. In my mind, I really weighed 118, the "acceptable" weight. So the scale must be broken and my dear husband corroborated with this story (if you're reading honey, I hate to tell you but our scale is not broken). I totally ignored all the signs that I had fallen into a fat trap and believe me there were plenty. Just the other week, I weighed myself on the "broken" scale again and it read "126". Whoa, I thought. The scale is super wrong, we have to find some way to return it. I was in complete denial. Then yesterday, I took my kids to the doctor and did a weigh in for myself. 126. Whoa, that must be wrong I thought. I was still in denial. My dear husband also corroborated with this story, thinking it said he was heavier than he thought he was too. But sometime after the doctor visit, it started hitting me like a ton of bricks. Two scales gave the same weight reading and I think I look fat from recent photos... So I went through some old photographs from 2 years ago until now. I couldn't deny that starting around mid/late last year, I started to look like the Stay-puft marshmallow man. I must have known on some level because I didn't put up photos of myself on Facebook. And then I remembered that my size 4 pants were getting tight so I moved up to my size 6's. When this happened, I blithely told myself that my pants had shrunken from poor washing/drying techniques (*begin rant or wrath on poor mother or husband*). Then, I couldn't fit into my skinny jeans. Damn them for shrinking, I thought, casting them to the back of the closet without nary a thought that I was actually expanding. And alas and alack, now, the final blow, even my size 6's have gotten really snug...after lunch today, I wanted to unbutton them so badly. I may have to move to size 8 or maybe even (God forbid!) my maternity clothes!
I don't know how I'm going to do this, but I need to lose the extra 8lbs. I'm eating 5 large meals a day and like Pavlov's dog or a drug addict, I NEED all those meals. I can't believe I was totally blindsided by the 8lbs. Do I cut down to 5 smaller meals or 3 large meals? Any advice? Haaaalp!!!

Cause of and medicine for pain

I think one of the signs that my children are getting older will be a full day without a single spill. At the end of today, before we start to brush our teeth, take a bath and begin our nighttime routine, a whole cup of milk is spilled. It's all over the place and I get so frustrated. I grab a dish towel that I think is ready for the wash anyway and begin to vigorously wipe up the floor. And of course, my children think it's so funny. They're trying to foil me as they walk all over the spills, spreading the wetness and creating an even bigger mess. I have to keep them away as I try to get the floor clean. The whole time I'm gritting my teeth with annoyance. And then, I feel some wiggly bodies jumping, pounding and kind of sliding off me. Because I'm down on my hands and knees, my children take the opportunity to play "horsey" with me. I can't help but burst out laughing and my bad mood is lifted.

And probably another sign that my children are growing up is the moment I don't have to worry about pens or markers left unattended on low surfaces.

Only so much she can take

"My tummy!" Sadie yells a little louder, repeating what she said earlier to her grandfather, who's a little hard of hearing.
"Your cousin?!" says Pa.
"No, my tummy!" she yells even louder.
"What?" says Pa, asking for more clarification.
Now she yells at the top of her lungs, "MY TUMMY!!!!"
And he says, "Your cousin?"
She's finally had it with him and gives her a piece of her mind, reprimanding him with the ultimate conversation killer, "Pa, you're poopy!"

A real sense of humor

"Who do you love?" asks my sister. My sister often likes to ask for validation from my children.
"My mom only!" says Sadie defiantly, fully aware of what my sister is soliciting.
"Who else?" prods my sister.
"And my dad, too," she says with a mischievous look.
"And who else?"...my sister is not going to give up.
And of course, my daughter is a total punk so she declares, "Haman"
My in laws are at the table and they're shocked.
What did Haman do, Sadie, someone asks.
She replies matter of factly, "He killed the Jews."
And decides she's going to one up herself.
"I love my mommy, my daddy and Haman, my husband."

Random quotes from today

"Mom, pick me up!" commands my daughter.
"Why?"
"Cuz I'm the boss!" she responds.

At midnight, Sadie wakes up to tell us she has to pee. We are so proud that she didn't wet her pull up so we whoop it up and tell her so. Her face is all scrunched up because she's really tired and her eyes haven't made the adjustment to the change in lighting yet.
"I want to give you a high five!" she blurts loudly, even though she's obviously drowsy, and her face is still all scrunched up.

Right before she goes back to sleep, she turns to me and says, "Mom, every day I love you cuz you're my best friend."

Awwww...she just melts my heart and fills it with joy.

Midtown lunch joys and woes

I work on 47th and 5th. I don't like to venture far for lunch. Unless I'm meeting someone for lunch, I try to keep the transaction brisk. So I restrict my lunch options to the businesses clustered on 47th st. between 5th and Madison.
I usually end up going to Blue Flowers, which is only across the street. The short review: fast, lots of choices, tasty, generous portions and cheap(ish) - can't compare to Chinatown, of course.
The long review: They have excellent breakfast and lunch options. Plus they are very quick and efficient. For breakfast, they do lovely made to order eggs and they have a good choice of breads, rolls, etc. For lunch, my hubby likes their burritos (a good deal at $6.95, and way better tasting than the yuckier ones at Qdoba and Cavonberry. Hubby gets the vegetarian version, while I highly recommend the spicy beef. No extra charge for guac. *Doing victory dance*.) while I generally go for the hot entrees. As far as hot entrees goes - the roasted 1/2 chicken is to die for, jerk chicken pretty good (kind of lemony), pecan encrusted chicken awesome (but very salty, I get extremely thirsty after but it's generally worth the torture), teriyaki beef brisket, salmon, sesame chicken and chicken with broccoli very good. I've nevered tried the always-available chicken cutlet, chicken parm and cajun chicken (which looks like the chicken cutlet with orange-colored cheese melted on it). So on a daily basis, I get one of the hot entrees mentioned and add two sides (usually rice with steamed vegetables) and the price is 7.95 for chicken, 8.95 for beef and 9.95 for salmon dishes. Oh how can I forget that for the days my hot entrees aren't available, there are a few other choices. There's a neat little section in the back where you can get Korean and Japanese inspired fare that's decent. The bi bim bap (don't order it if you're Korean) is good - request it with brown rice and get the beef version, so are so soba noodle soups (don't ever order shrimp tempura, you will be hungry, sad and definitely regretting paying extra for only 2 pieces of floured covered skinny-ass previously frozen shrimps) and the "sushi" is OK (good deal on the cooked salmon roll - only $4.95 for a big portion). Finally, they make a delicious whole wheat brick oven pizza. Mmmmm.
Now for the complaints. I cannot believe how bad service is here. From the middle (as the Asian guy in the back of the store who prepares the "Asian" fare is really nice and friendly) of the store to the front, only assholes work there. (This probably doesn't need any mentioning, but I'm sure this wouldn't apply to any well-endowed, friendly, provocatively-dressed women.) I've gotten into a few verbal altercations with all of them about the stupidest things and have many times stopped myself from getting into more hostile confrontations. And this is coming from a person who doesn't like to speak up about these things. Any way, if I had better options, I'd drop them like a hot flaming potato. I cannot believe how terrible the customer service is and how clueless the employees are about what service means.
Today, I re-discovered Cafe Metro. This will become my new go-to place when I can't deal with bad service. But I'll have to eat less...
They don't rush you like their Type-A-got-ants-in-my-pants-and-I'm-going-to-give-them-to-you-too counterparts - the Blue Flowers and Hale+Hearty ilk (BTW, it usually costs me $9 or more for lunch there and I'm still hungry). The fare is leaning towards being marketed as "gourmet". I deeply enjoyed my organic black bean soup with spicy cajun chicken pressini (heated/toasted, yum!) for $7.49, including a bottle of water or soda. Best of all, I discovered that you can order online for today, tomorrow and the next day and it's cheaper than going in the store!. The website is http://www.cafemetryny.com/ My only complaint is that my lunch was kind of small compared to my regular gorge of gluttony at Blue Flowers.

Wanted: Chatty husband

Can't believe I didn't win the lottery! I was so sure it was going to be me.

On another note, I'm about to embark on a litany of complaints.
I don't like it when my husband stays out late - I'm always suspicious he's doing something he's not supposed to be doing. But I can get over that, what really annoys me is that when he comes home, he makes no comments about his outing. All I get are silence and maybe some smiles. I'm interested to hear all the details, the feelings, the opinions or whatever about the experience. I know he must have chatted while he was out, it's not fair to be all chatted out when you come home. I wish he could be more expressive. He is above chatting, complimenting, bad-mouthing or gossiping. He doesn't Facebook. He has no blog. He doesn't talk about other people's motivations in life or how egos get into the way...etc. etc. What up with that?!

Now if I were to ask him the best way to solve an equation or some brain teaser, he'd probably keep talking until I fall asleep. I just don't get it. I'm interested in talking about every day life, feelings and people but he gets excited by logic, facts and figures.

Back to his reticence after late social outings, it only adds to the suspicion that he was doing something he wasn't supposed to be doing! Oh and I hate it when I overhear him or someone else that's usually not chatty being chatty with someone else. I think, why isn't this person chatty with me?!

And the ultimate complaint that I have -- I have to admit that I love jumping to conclusions and making accusations. I like it when the person I've accused, gets all riled up and denies the accusations, going into a heated outpouring of reasons or justifications. My husband, what does he do when he's accused of vile things? He might smile at you. He might ask for clarification of an irrelevant detail (this has to me the most irritating of all - totally ignoring the accusation and the point of the diatribe altogether). Most likely he would just be silent. It's so aggravating! I think it's totally disrespectful to remain calm when someone in your presence is excited. He did say to me once that the person who hotly denies is most likely guilty. I still think that remaining mum doesn't reek of innocence to me.

Finally, when I go out, I always come home flush, eager and excited to share stories. What a fun, lovely, humble, chatty and loyal wife I am. :)

Mo money mo problems

Two articles on how winning the lottery can bring all sorts of issues and anecdotal tales of people who ended up in debt or in jail after winning the lottery:
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/SaveMoney/8lotteryWinnersWhoLostTheirMillions.aspx
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_146760.html

In one of the anecdotes, an ex-girlfriend came out of the woodwork to sue for money (and won), a brother hired a hit man, really sordid stuff.

I don't think this would happen to me - jail or debt (but first let me win the lottery, to prove it you, hehehe).

I do think it's terrible to publish the winner's name and address. Before coming forward to claim your ticket, I think the winner should get security guards and systems for their homes. Maybe even change your names! Maybe to Cassandra Jupiter.

Second chance

No winner for the $171 megamillions jackpot. Prize is up to $212MM now! Drawing is tomorrow.
I'm going to buy a few more tickets.