360 days of my life #181 or something

The kid thinks he's Anime...I swear.

Eggplant Rollatini? Not a cocktail

Last night I attempted a Giada Recipe

I have found that although she is very easy on the eyes her recipes don't usually taste that great. Which is a bummer because whenever she tastes her own food she really appears to be enjoying it.

We tried

Eggplant Rollatini

My friend Justine, who owns a fabulous restaurant here in

Longmont called the Sugar Beet ,

(they grow all their own food),

brought me a bushel of veggies from their organic garden and I wanted to use up the eggplant first.

I jimmied around with the recipe and instead of making it rollups I did a layered lasagna type thing.  

Here's what you need:

• Sea salt and black pepper
• 1 large eggplant
• 6 no cook lasagna strips
• Can vegetable spray
• 16 oz ricotta
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella
• 8 tablespoons grated Parmesan
• 3 tablespoons toasted pine nuts
• 20 basil leaves, chiffonaded
• Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
• 2 cups fresh tomato sauce,...whatever you have
• 
  
• Preheat oven to 375 
• 
  
• 
• Slice the eggplant and lay on a rack.  Sprinkle sea salt on both sides to pull out the bitterness.  Leave on for about 15 minutes (just long enough to throw in a load of laundry and grab yourself a cocktail)
• Rinse the salt off the eggplant and pat dry with paper towel.
• I cooked my eggplant on the grill, but you could use a grill pan.
• Coat the eggplant with olive or veggie oil. 

  

I really coated mine because it seems to suck up the oil.  Grill on each side for about 4 minutes or until tender.

let cool a bit on a plate while you get the rest ready.

mix in a bowl the ricotta ,2 eggs, salt and pepper,pine nuts and the basil...however much you like.  

Add in some mozzarella and parmesan.

Now, I used some canned sauce (SHHHH, I was in a hurry and no one really cares).

start layering it up like lasagna.  I used a 9x9 square cooking pyrex, seemed to work perfect.

layer anyway you choose....free form baby!

I topped mine with sauce and a bit of bread crumbs.

now throw it in the oven covered with foil for 40 minutes

take foil off and bake for an additional 10 minutes to brown up the top a bit.

let sit,

maybe whip up a salad, have another cocktail and get ready for the kids to complain about eggplant.

Here's the review:

Dad: wouldn't touch, made a steak

Olive 6:  ate around the eggplant said eggplant is mushy

Ilin 13: ate it, kindly said it was pretty good, but definitely didn't have seconds OR request it for lunch tomorrow.

Me:  I'll eat anything.   It wasn't bad...wasn't great, but you have to like eggplant.

Ann Taylor Loft xoxox

I bought these pants yesterday in white and olive green.

I love them. I love the way they fit. They had them in petite which fit my curves perfectly.

and you know what else I love?

$9.98

uhhuh!

If you have never shopped their sales...check them out

The clothes are well made, comfy and really cute.

yesterday it was too hot

As you know by now I work the night shift...a nice long 12 hours 7-7a...sometimes it stretches to 13 hours, and Friday night was just that...LOOOONNNGGGG.

I got home from work at about 845 am and crashed into bed, knowing I had signed up for Denver Skirt Chasers 5K  (check it out).

I had to be there by 330 to pick up my packet and change into my skirt.  

It was overcast at my house so I was pretty stoked.  At least it wouldn't be roasting, because the hottest part of the days here in Colorado are the late afternoons: race started at 5.

Got there, got my packet, got into my skirt and the sun busted from behind the clouds!   arrrgh.  It was only a 5K (3.2 miles) but running in the hot sun, in the city, on the blacktop is miserable....no matter how far it is.

So ,about this pretty cool race....Gals start at 5pm and the men are corralled behind them.  We Start...they have to wait 3 minutes then they start.  The ladies who are single can wear a sticker or a shirt that shows as such...and the men can pace with them if interested.  Runners are pretty competitive so I really didn't see a bunch of "pace dating" going on...but it's a cool thing anyways.  I heard alot of guys yelling, "move that skirt"  and "nice skirt"...even though we were all wearing the same skirt, hahahaha

The race itself was fast paced uphill through Cherry Creek... Up and down Up and Down...it was tortuous in the 95+ heat.

I think most of the fun was to be had after the race.  It was sponsored by Oskar Blues, so there was free beer, burritos (of course they ran out of veggie burritos), and music.  I wonder how many hook ups there were?   Me, being married, and having started my period 2 hours before the race, I went home to change my big girl panties and relax.

I didn't do as well as I usually do.  I came in 38th in my age group (out of 130 or so) and my time was 31:27  ....10 minute miles !!! argh...but honestly I walked some.  

next month is the 10k. I hope I have an ok time on that one.

It was fun, and i suggest if it comes to your town do it!

reupholster a chair... Step 1

Hmmm, as I move a long in my project I am finding it quite irritating, which means to me the rewards should be great!

First thing...drag chair to workable space where you won't have to move it and where you can shoot little staples all over the room upon removal.

The directions I have say to start at the bottom, so I removed the legs of the chair and started on the bottom...wow, too many staples.

Gross?...just wait.

so the bottom is off and back and look at what treasures of grossness I've found!!!

a HAT!!!!  

really, kids?

Here's a closeup...

poor little army man

I just want you to know...kids are gross, I blame this all on them.

So after approximately on and off staple pulling for 4 hours I had only gotten the bottom section unhooked.  Time to call it a night and I'll start again tomorrow.

Wow... My friend just emailed me and said the staples are the worst part...

So, far it is the only part.

She also said to watch out for dead things.

Bleeech

list as we go...keep ya posted

here is what I have on my temporary paper plate:
1. send off new resume to a few hospitals for telemetry floor (hearts)
2. grocery shop
3.get tags for motorcycle
4. run the 5k this weekend  Skirt chasers5k
5.keep training for 10k Sept. 19
6.Hot yoga once a week  ( I'll check this off when I do it 3 times
7. reupholster my chair...
8. door for lil trailer
9. wheels for lil trailer  (in hopes we can use it labor day)

floors suggestions?

After 5 years of living in our home I am finally in a position to start redoing some things.

The first thing we want to do is the living room.  We want to ditch the carpet, yak, and get flooring.

Does anyone have suggestions on flooring?  I love the color of the bamboo...but know nothing about it

As you can see by the pictures it is very retro which we are going to mod up.  The fireplace is whitish and we have the big corner windows.  We will be getting new furniture for upstairs and then the retro couches will be recovered and send downstairs. (that mess is another story)

Any suggestions on flooring would be loved so much, and something within the budget...you know, a normal budget...Not BHG.com budget

Flip that leaf

Not even turn over a new leaf...i'm flippin' that baby!
Last night as I tossed and turned in bed I realized I'm not happy being stagnant....even when sleeping.  It's definitely one of my issues.  As I perused Facebook I noticed a friend of a friend talking about Skirtchasers 5K.  What the hell...I'll sign up.  I did.  Then I tossed and turned some more.  I told myself I will get up and start completing some tasks.  Start heading towards a goal...(I'm good with goals).
I got up at 630, did some laundry, got Olive ready for school, walked her to school, then headed straight to hot yoga.  shew...it was hot and exhausting and now I feel empty and it's only 1130...I am going to finish grocery shopping, prepare a menu for the week and last but not least...I'm going to reupholster my chair.  Yup, kind of out of order but that is this weeks goals.

here is what I have on my temporary paper plate:
1. send off new resume to a few hospitals for telemetry floor (hearts)
2. grocery shop
3.get tags for motorcycle
4. run the 5k this weekend
5.keep training for 10k Sept. 19
6.Hot yoga once a week
reupholster my chair...

see, list complete...gotta go get on it

xo m
I'm sore from yoga...I thought yoga was supposed to relax you

Working with a smile

"thanks you for coming to work with a smile on your face"

hmmm?  This was presented to me in my work mailbox attached to a snickers.  Isn't that nice?  It's nice to be appreciated once in a while.  Working the night shift as an RN is not the easiest, wait, let me take that back,  it's  not the easiest to actually go to work.   It's not the work, its the going to work that is horrible.   The 12 hour shifts will suck the all mighty bejesus outta ya just thinking about it.  They tell me days are better.  Who knows, but what I will tell you is that it makes for an exceptionally long shift if you come to work all bitched out, and up, and with a bad attititude.   I, personally, like to wear pony tails, which I am too old too wear, goofy hair accessories, and have an arsenal of silly jokes to start the shift.  Sure, I know my vim and vigor is irritating  to some, but being sick, sucks...working 12 hour night shift when the rest of the world is asleep sucks....and I'll tell you something else...the patient never ever remembers the night nurse ,after the fact.  The family will sometimes send a thank you card thanking the "nurse" who did such an exceptional job taking care of the patient in their time of need.  It's always inevitably the day nurse...name and everything.   grrrr...Let's see last night, I had a patient who puked up a liter of vomit, and who was there to clean it up and wipe his brow?  (A LITER!!!!   LIKE A LITER OF POP!!!!)  That would be me, thank you very much, the night nurse....He did thank me for all I did, But ,I guarantee, when his wife sends the THANK YOU card it will be the day nurse, because that is when she was there and what she remembers....He'll only remember the perky redheaded nurse who cracked the joke about "Poop and vomit"...but he won't remember my name.  yeah yeah, I know he's thankful, and I'm happy to help.   

The point is, coming to work with a smile on your face shouldn't be an option when you are a nurse....it should be  a given and we shouldn't be rewarded for such things....although it was nice, and the snickers was good at 4AM too.

360 days of my life #168

1st grade.

1st grade, originally uploaded by v8grrl.

If I had a bottle of champagne I would toast...

now my summer can begin!!!

:)

weekend goodness...

Ilin Blue, the 13 year old, treated us to a dinner of homemade Pad Thai using this simple recipe at Brownies for Dinner.  I think he even impressed himself.

Plain ol Pad Thai...

mmmm

mmmm good.

try it!

then on top of that, Bobby sat outside and fixed my Motorcycle...It's been sitting there taking up space for 10 years....10 YEARS!!!

He took it apart, blew out the carbs, put it back together, polished it up and said, "hey, got that bike runnin'"

awwww.

I rode it to the gas station and when I came back all three were standing in the driveway.  I said, "how'd I look?"

they all said, in unison, 

"SLOW!!!"

isn't she cute?

Bobby doesn't ride, but maybe he will learn.

I offered him a ride on the back, but he said..."I ain't no ones bitch"...hahahaha

360 days of my life #163

One more week of summer and the mini me's hit the pool.

Is this a preview of what is to come for the girls teen years?  We haven't a clue...

but Synda and I are really, really scared.

I'm not jokin' ya.

xo 

m

360 days of my life #162

besos, originally uploaded by v8grrl.

Synda took some pictures before we went to Red Rocks last night to see STP

A few came out pretty good, seeing how it was very impromptu and not the fancy pictures she usually takes...and with MY camera to boot.

Poor Bobby, he looks tortured

Boost of confidence.

"Just let me finish in these 2 rooms then we are heading into that room and you ARE going to do it."

~"D, I hate it, I'm horrible at it, I'm sucky...I don't want to"

"Yes, Myssi...You are going to do it and I'll give you moral support, you will be fine.  He's 90 year's old and high as a kite on Morphine, and did you see those veins?  They are like garden hoses!"

~" All right!  damnit all...you're right...if I'm ever going to progress from this area of nursing I have to perfect more skills than humor and but wiping... I'm doing it, and if I can't...then YOU will do it, right?"

"you'll get it.  Meet ya in the room"

I set up my stuff next to the little sick old man who is moaning about his sore legs and aching head.  (that's nothing mister, wait til I start digging around in your arm.)

I got all my stuff together in a pile.  D came in and gave me a few little tricks, use a chuck pad, so the gushing blood is easier to clean up, have your tagaderm and stuff all opened and ready, check the needle, advance the catheter...picture the inside if the vein.  

"HUH?"

picturing, picturing,  Tie the tourniquet, feel the big fat vein (should feel like a trampoline...boing boing boing)  clean with chloraprep...visualize...POKE...

OOOH...oooooohh

"Myssi, Advance it a bit more...just push it in..."

OM My god...thank god he's on Morphine...

Why am I such a wuss?

"D,It's in...wait why's it so damn bloody?"  

"Because you got it in the right place...rockstar!  good-job!"

So, I was so excited about hitting the vein that I forgot to do the other stuff, so thank god D was there to :

1. pull off the tourniquet so the old man didn't lose all if his blood onto the pad.

2. grab the tagaderm

3. help me put the flush on.

4. tape that sucker down.

5. and pat me on the back...because I was all happy and doing the happy dance.

To seasoned nurses this is silly.  For me, a big confidence booster.  I at least hit the vein.

I only want to ask the nursing gods to only give me 90 year old people who have no feeling in their limbs and garden hoses as veins for the next 6 months so that I can get some practice.

And just so you know, the old man said ..."Did ya get it? Because I have a headache"

End of 12.5 hour shift....

now I go home to clean the pee pee of the bottom of my shoes.

Invisible Woman

Not quite a super hero, just over 40.
It's weird.

40's, the best years of my life so far (yeah yeah, I'm barely into them, but yet they have been good), yet I have become invisible.

it bites.

What is this Cougar Business?  I don't care for it...

MILF was cute when I was 30...but something about Cougar that makes me cringe...

makes me think of Betty White dressed in leopard print.

Or maybe Ruth Gordon.
Although she was hardly invisible, huh?

I should just take Maude's advice...

if you wanna be free be free!!!!

Click the link to watch the entire movie

I highly advise you too...

It was life changing for me at age 13,22,34 and now again at 41

Love is where all of us belong...

Don't wear fear or nobody will no you are there...

xoxox, m

Freedom of Speech at it's Finest

I'm sure you have seen this by now...

It's beautiful.  

This is why Independent Thinking is a great quality in a kid.

360 days of my life #160

360 days, originally uploaded by v8grrl.

he cracks me up

360 days of my life #159

From the Smitten Kitchen  New York Cheesecake.

Yeah, mine was a bit brown on the top, ok a lot brown on top...you really have to watch it the first 7 minutes, and that means EVEN if you are drinking margaritas,it's not gonna watch itself!...and maybe the crust was a little thick in the corners...but it was a hit.

Sour Cherry topping from scratch...so easy, the entire thing was easy!!!  Seriously, I really couldn't believe it.  My Ma in law said, "wow, you whipped that up in a minute!"  It was actually 14 minutes it took to mix everything together and that included telling Olive to move 70 times and opening 5 boxes of cream cheese.

You guys should really try it...it was sooooo easy!

a couple of hints:  1. Watch the top on the first 12 minutes at 500 degrees...mine took only 8 minutes to get brown and even though I turned it down it still browned on the top.

2. make sure your cream cheese is room temp when you mix

so tired

After a week of nonstop bidness, wit da fam...I'm absoeffinlutely exhausted.  Here let me give you the rundown:

We did:

Pearl St Mall, shopping, eating, fighting, crying, discussing, walking, Coors tour, Celestial Seasoning Tour, drank many microbrews, ate lots of fattening cheese, argued, celebrated a birthday, made a cheesecake  :)  , did laundry 57 times and still have 2 days to go.

It's all good.  it's all good... (it's my new mantra)

Happy Birthday ....

A long strange road it has been, 

and look how far you have come in the hair department!

Happy Birthday

you are almost a half a century old...

Bwahahahaha

love you,

m

left to right 1) sunset strip 80's (obviously)  2.) same : Eternyl Ryte

3.) early 2004? Rockabilly  4.) 2010...a lil bit rock-n-roll

360 days of my life #156

bumper crop, originally uploaded by v8grrl.