wednesday wussy

today is sooooo pretty outside. i long to be in the out-of-doors in the warming sunshine, maybe walking the roxy or reading in the park.

as if. too many bugs for me to be lying down in the grass and such, namely those horrifying eight-legged terrorists commonly known as spiders. blech!

(this is the only image i could stomach. if you want to see a nasty spider, click here.)


call me an arachnophobic if you will. i call it careful. i HATE those things. i know they serve a purpose and i really try not to kill them (or have them killed, as is usually the case) in their natural habitat, but heaven help them if they get anywhere near me. my house, my car, my office are all out-of-bounds. when i spot them, i tend to immediately scream. i do this at home, in the car and at the office. in front of clients. i have clients kill them for me. everyone in the office knows what that scream means now. and those little horrors know how to find me too. i am the only one who is continuously assaulted by their presence. they don't crawl across anyone else's keyboard, or water glass, or doorway. just mine. they can smell my fear.

today, i am a wednesday spider-wussy. i'll share some of my incidents with you now.

-i was driving to the gym one afternoon and on the phone with my friend amanda. a hidden spider dropped down from my rearview mirror and got caught in the air conditioner's breeze and flew at my face. i screamed, dropped the phone, swerved a bit and almost wrecked and pulled over into a driveway and got out screaming and hitting my face.

-a spider once crawled up my water glass at work. just climbed up and peeped over at me. this was not the same one that ran across my keyboard.

-i was driving somewhere in my car, with the roxy in the back. i saw a spider on my car, freaked that i couldn't kill it and just knew it was going to jump onto me (you know, cause spiders can jump through glass and all at 30 mph), pulled over in a liquor store parking lot and asked the guy working to come kill it with a broom. he obliged and killed the spider. the down side? the rox got scared and sprayed. in my car. on the seat. nasty.

-too many times to count, spiders darken my doorway and refuse to let me pass. this happened just yesterday. a big green spider stood guard at my door and i had to get ben to come kill him. i clearly remember one morning at work there were not one but two spiders (one big and ugly, one small and sneaky) hanging out on the brick doorway of our office. i really almost called someone upstairs to come get them.

-i tend to scream and usually fly backwards when i see a spider in the office. as i mentioned, my co-workers are now adjusted to this behavior. so one day, i bend down below my desk to look assess some cpu malfunction, only to discover a HUGE black tarantula-esque creature at my feet. i scream lounder than usual and literally fly backwards across the room in my chair, scaring my two co-workers (we share an office) to death. and then they start laughing. hysterically. knowing my fear of spiders and having seen it in action too many times, they thought it was a good idea to plant a fake spider by my desk. it had been there for about a week.

so, there you have it. i am a wussy when it comes to spiders. ugh. *shudder* happy wednesday y'all. thank the lord in heaven above it's almost over.

tuesday dinner

as i munch on my shipley's chocolate-covered donuts of the deep-fried-goodness variety, i'll share with you the recipe for the turkey cutlets i made for dinner last night, which was much healthier than my breakfast of choice. at least i got 2% instead of whole milk this time.


i found this recipe for turkey turnovers from my rachael ray magazine.

you'll need: one pack (about 3-4) turkey cutlets, available in the butcher section of your local kroger usually next to the pre-made kebabs, one can of fire-roasted tomatoes (or a lot of little cherry tomatoes, halved, whichever you prefer, but you might have to add some water in the recipe), one pack chopped frozen spinach (or fresh spinach), one package soft herbed cheese, like boursin, (you can use the regular or the light, but take a look at that calorie/fat content first!), some extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper, and fennel (which i don't use, cause i usually don't have any).

-defrost the pack of chopped spinach.
-heat the olive oil (a turn of the pan or so) in a large skillet.
-give the cutlets a good pounding to flatten them out and season with salt and pepper.
-place a mound of the spinach and cheese on one side of each cutlet and fold over the other side to make the turnover. secure with toothpicks.
-place turnovers in the heated oil, on medium high, and cook for a few minutes on each side until slightly browned. this can get tricky, so use tongs and don't worry if the stuffing falls out a bit.
-after both sides have cooked, pour in the can of tomatoes and juice (or your little cherry tomatoes and some water).
-bring to a quick boil, then cover and turn down the heat and cook for about 8-10 minutes, or until the turkey is done.

hope you like it!

wondering if i should spring for chocolate donut #3?

friday

a friday hit list.

combine these:

1. one sam adams summer ale, one lazy magnolia indian summer, and another summer ale.
2. no dinner.
3. staying out til midnight with the law student's friends.

and this is what you get:

1. a tired girl.
2. who needs a pillow.
3. who's hungry and bumming cheese puffs off her coworker.
4. who brushed her teeth,
5. but forgot deodorant.
6. and didn't shower cause her hair looks ok from last night.
7. and is wearing makeup over last night's makeup.

the luck of the irish

i like to fancy myself as being of irish ancestry, however far removed. my maiden name, mckissack (i miss it), is obviously from the emerald isle. i have an obsession with green, irish poems and claddaghs. according to my maternal grandmother, we are not cherokee, as we have always been told, but actually black irish--now that was an interesting incident. supplemental post to follow. either way, i have some sort of ancestry that has been furiously oppressed at some point in time. my in-laws traveled to ireland a few years ago (so jealous). her grandmother was actually from ireland, and my mother-in-law actually found her cousin on the streets of ireland. she said he looked like her dead father and i think it kind of freaked her out.

this post is about a sweet story i heard yesterday.

i was in belk here in smalltown, mississippi, and was looking for a birthday present for steve, the life professional. a sweet lady helped me and somehow we got on the subject of ireland. she said her husband was from ireland. i told her how much i loved ireland, etc., just like i did above. then she told me how she and her husband met. they met on the internet (she in mississippi, he in ireland), he came over for a visit to officially meet her face-to-face, and he stayed and they got married. just up and left his homeland and never went back! she also said they save their pennies all year so they can visit his family. i thought it was so cute.


************
supplemental post regarding my up-for-grabs ancestry.

for as long as i can remember, i have always been told i was cherokee indian (native american, whatever) on my maternal grandfather's side. my mom always told me this, pointing out that my grandfather was always red and that my great-great-grandmother had been cherokee or married a cherokee (or looked at a cherokee once, whatever). naturally, as a small, trusting child, i took her at her word. little did i know that this was wrong. i remember the incident clearly. we were at my grandmother's house, in the kitchen, maybe putting up some leftover mcclard's barbecue (or getting it out of the fridge, who knows). i mention something about being cherokee. immediately, my mom (who is behind grandma) starts making the cease-and-desist motion with her hands and mouthing no while my grandmother simultaneously launches into a swift and final explanation that we are not cherokee. we are black irish. and since i can't take a hint to save my life (almost got me arrested once, thankyouverymuchmrduiofficer), i argue with her. at this point mom gives up, grandma talks without caring if we are listening because she is right and that's all there is to it, and i am very sorry i asked.

yawn

hello, it's your favorite wednesday wussy again! i cannot stay awake to save my life. well, that's actually an exaggeration, obviously. i mean, i'm good, but i'm not that good.

let's get to it, shall we? i have a headache and don't feel much like being witty and charming. i feel like being a wednesday wussy.

i have a headache, cause i'm tired, cause i stay up too late because the law student is underemployed and likes to stay up too late too. got that? which means i so do not want to finish these payrolls and get them off my desk. or add up the subtotal, taxes, shipping and handling and then grand total for my two-year-old wedding photos that i have not ordered yet but told my mom i did. seriously. should it take me three whole evenings to fill out 2 order forms from a pile of pre-sorted, pre-picked-out pictures (that i had to get mom to help with anyway)? didn't think so.

i love (not) that the law student can't make his own salad for dinner and will instead wait for me to do it (which i didn't) and then decide that driving to burger doodle is much more time- and money-efficient. he is just as capable as i to chop vegetables, undo the cap on dressing, fluff his lettuce in a bowl and cut off bits of roasted chicken, but apparently does not know this.

my dog stinks. i've threatened to bathe her since friday, but i think she's on to me.

speaking of stinky, i am mad at dove brand deodorant. let's just walk through my relationships with deodorant, hmmm? i'm like a 6-month dater. i'll use a brand (usually lady mitchum cool dry soft solid) for a length of time and we're GREAT together. then, the magic fades, as does the odor-masking, perspiration-reducing effectiveness, so i'll go and get a new brand, but i always come back to lady mitchum. well, this girl has learned her lesson. in one of my many flings with a new brand, i bought dove (citrus lemongrass scent, i believe) but it did not do it for me. it was still too early to go back to my lady, so i found dove clinical prescription strength (cool cucumber scent) and thought for sure it would work and then some. i'd probably be able to skip days, even. this is not the case. not only does this deodorant instruct you to put it on at night (pshhuh! as if!), it does not work. every time i wave or even type too fast, my nose crinkles.

i'd really like to skip pilates tonight because i'm so tired and my shoulders hurt from yoga. wish i hadn't eaten that burger from handy andy's for lunch. and that sausage egg and cheese mcbiscuit this morning. call me mcgut.

well, it's 3 pm and my timesheet is missing about 2 hours on it. guess i'd better get to making it up.

post with pictures from the weekend coming soon. i miss my friends.

have a wussy wednesday, y'all!

shower power

it's wussy wednesday again. guess what i'm doing? at work, blogging, wishing i was somewhere out in the sunshine, waiting on a lunch/farmer's market date with the law student. i really don't want to work today.

*sigh*

so, my wussy wednesday post--here you go. i do not want to clean my shower. it has a live black mold on it that has crept from the shower curtain to the wall of the tub. i mean, isn't that nasty?! eck. and for the past 4 days, i've looked at it, sneered, and stepped out of the shower and away from all motivation to clean it up. well, i broke down today and half-as-cleaned it at 6:40 this morning after my shower. i found a bottle of scrub free spray and half-heartedly, then whole-heartedly, then frustratedly, sprayed the mold and the other suspect pink areas near the drain of my shower and using (ruining) a perfectly good washcloth not immune to bleach to clean it up. you see, that scrub-free spray doesn't spray so well. so after i had showered, i had bleach all over my hands that needed to be cleaned. you know, again. i hope the law student appreciates all that i go through to make his life more clean and comfortable.

food for thought

i love food. i harbor an impressive body of knowledge and opinions on the subject. i am not one of those girls who views food as sustenance, or even the enemy and will only pick at dinner. food is one of my top 3 favorite things. i managed to inherit my mother's stature, sassiness and thank the lord in heaven above, her cooking talents.

dinner on this particularly comfortable saturday night? prosciutto and melon (cantaloupe) pasta. i don't even like melon. not even watermelon. isn't that just the most un-southern thing ever? i'll share the recipe with you below, or you can look it up on rachael ray's website. but beware: i rarely measure anything. it annoys me. which is why i do not bake.

ingredients for 2 large bowls of pasta and a little leftover:

-about 2/3 box of wide flat noodle pasta, such as fettucine (that i used tonight) or pappardelle (called for in the recipe).
-half a cantaloupe (we got two especially fragrant ones at our farmer's market this week), cubed
-about 1/2 pound prosciutto, cut into strips (as best as you can anyway--i had issues, but it did not take away from the integrity of the dish at all). you could sub bacon here if you wanted, but why would you want to?
-one spoonful of tomato paste. tomato sauce would do in a pinch, but not ketchup.
-heavy cream, about 1/2 cup or more to taste/desired consistency/amount.
-zest and juice of one lemon
-olive oil
-salt
-cheese--parmesan, parmigiano reggiano, whatever. this is optional

instructions: toss your pasta into salted boiling water to al dente (to the tooth, or in english, not slimy). drain, set aside. while pasta is working, heat olive oil (turn of the pan or so) on medium high heat in a large saucepan and toss in the prosciutto strips to brown, for about 5 minutes. remove and drain on a paper towel. add some more olive oil, melon and salt to taste, and cook for about 7 minutes into a nice chunky sauce. once you get this going, add the spoonful of tomato paste, lemon juice, cheese and heavy cream and stir in for a few more minutes and remove from heat. add the sauce, lemon zest and most of the prosciutto to the pasta and toss to coat. top your servings with additional prosciutto and cheese. enjoy as your guests marvel at your culinary creation that only took you about 30 minutes or so. looks fancy, tastes great, so easy.


a few menu items for the week: eggplant parmesan neopolitan, garlic lime dijon chicken, pesto grilled chicken, orange balsalmic chicken thighs with sage butter pasta, steak with peppers, and some salmon and tilapia dishes, all with veggies from the farmer's market. another one of my favorite things! oh man--just remembered i bought ground beef and a whole chicken, killed yesterday, at the market. these will have to be incorporated. mmm, fresh chicken.

oxford's mid-town farmer's market is one of my favorite things about this town. i am very interested in the politcal power structure of the food industry, buying local and helping out the farmers, and american food culture. i'd love to get really involved, actually. lots of really interesting, oppressive and outrageous things happening now to the laws that govern farmers and food. personally, this is the best-tasting chicken i've ever eaten. it doesn't taste like a bland white alternative to beef--it tastes like chicken, with its own distinct flavor. he (nameless bearded vendor of zion farms of pontotoc, ms) offers grass-fed chicken, beef and pork (and holiday turkeys!), and of course eggs, that he raises and harvests himself, hence the was-alive-yesterday chicken in my freezer begging for a juicy marinade, fresh herbs and a hot oven. i try to buy all my meat for the week from him, and will try to continue to do so even after the market season ends. then there is the brown dairy farm of oxford, with fresh grass-fed, twice-daily-milked-jersey-cow milk that is home-pasteurized. they are now offering whole milk and reduced-fat milk (they are unsure of the percentage, but i don't care), and toying with cream and butter. i can't wait for that. then there is the produce: corn, zucchini galore, tomatoes as big as softballs, okra, peaches, cantaloupes, watermelons, peppers, green beans, purple hull peas (if you like those--i don't), squash, eggplant, cucumbers, onions, garlic, et cetera, et al. i saw about 15 varieties of heirloom tomatoes today, all with descriptions of flavor, texture, color and origin, down to the family farmers! some were as big as a toddler's face, no lie. there is so much at our market. we even got a teeny tiny jalapeño.

and then there is the breakfast. the primo breakfast joint in town--bbb's. the law student's mom came in town last night for dinner, market trip and breakfast. we had the dear american airlines, law student had the pain perdue--breakfast in a cup and french toast, respectively. company is always a good excuse to enjoy the most expensive breakfast in town.

currently re-reading wicked--the back story of the wicked witch of the west. it's a great, but mature, read. the law student and i celebrated our 2nd year of holy matrimony by seeing the play at the opheum in memphis. it was pretty fantastical, and i loved galinda's role, but the story line was a bit changed. saw public enemies in the theater on thursday, which reaffirmed my major crush on johnny depp. hottest actor ever.

both of my sisters start their real-world jobs as teachers of the american youth in these next few weeks. i imagine they will begin to realize just how awesome college life is. it's not always a fun realization, but necessary. i miss college so much--i miss my friends, being able to see my friends whenever i wanted, bar hopping, no real life pressures other than not getting arrested and keeping up my grades, road trips, bookbags. but i am very proud of my sisters (all my friends, actually) and can't wait to hear about their precious students and their new life chapters.

this past weekend, dad the life professional took me and the law student to chicago. fabulous city, and we barely scratched the surface. we stayed on michigan avenue, ate some fabulous food at harry caray's and volare, i got my first designer purse, and caught a reds vs. cubs game at wrigley field. a guy i went to college with, craig tatum, got called up to the reds the week before and i got to see him catch the entire game and hang out with his fun wife daniele. dad's on a kick of seeing all the old ballparks before they disappear. he's seen shea and yankee, and wrigley was next on the list. maybe i can get him to take us to the hopefully-to-occur dodgers vs. red sox at fenway. the law student's dad is a huge red sox fan, and i went to college with jonathan papelbon, but don't know him personally or anything.

time to fold towels and read some wicked. good evening to you all!