Three is the Magic Number

Ladies.

Gentlemen.

Dear readers from far and wide.

It’s April 27th.

So for no other reason than that it’s two years after a month after I posted the first, and last year when I posted the second,

but I could have sworn I posted the first two on April 27,

#whoops,

I present to you,

A Glass of Milk’s Third Annual List of Awesome!

1. Having time to read

2. Pandora

3. Deleting Facebook and Twitter from your phone

4. A good cry

5. Brunch

6. Getting cards in the mail

7. Doing little things for others

8. Magazines–with physical pages

9. Scanning negatives so that your memories don’t go anywhere

10. Furniture you don’t have to build

11. SongPop

12. Waking up and remembering you’re on vacation

13. Having a work best friend

14. Etsy

15. Mumford & Sons

16. Champagne

17. Documentaries (Love this, this, and omg this)

18. Finally hanging frames on the wall

19. Trader Joes

20. Becoming a grown up–seriously, I know so much more about life now

21. Decorative pillows

22. Breaking Dawn, Part 2 (I’m shocking even myself with that one)

23. This blog.

24. A toasted plain bagel with peanut butter from Bethesda Bagels

25. The ten days when lilacs are in bloom

26. Staycations

27. A stellar piece of furniture that doubles the amount of storage space you have

28. M&Ms

29. Having a full service set of your grandmother’s china–from 1952

30. IKEA

31. Etiquette

32. Dishwasher detergent pods

33. Random bouts of productivity that strike at whim

34. Kids who crack you up

35. This truth

36. Kind words

37. A good haircut

38. Sex and the City–still

39. A long overdue purge of items from closets, shelves, etc.

40. Maxi dresses (especially if you’re about to ride a plane)

41. Photo books (I like these and these)

42. Songs from the 80s

43. Coffee table books

44. The last season of the Office–I’m re-hooked

45. Porch Crawlers/Redneck Lemonade

46. Bringing your raincoat on a day you had a feeling you might need it

47. Homegrown basil

48. Stripes

49. Bailey’s Irish Cream

50. Navy and green

Preppy Ladies

3 Replies

I got two cookbooks recently. Cookbooks from a ladies club in Alexandria, Virginia. Something along the lines of this. Wooden Nickels was itching to flip through it so I passed it over to her with a warning, “All you’re going to see are recipes for chicken casseroles with cans of cream of mushroom, a cup of sour cream and a cup of mayonnaise.” She looked at me doubtfully (commonplace in our lives), and went on her way.

When Wooden Nickels returned with said cookbooks, she admitted the accuracy of my statement. Yes! She never does that!

Preps love to cook. They love to cook casseroles. They love to cook casseroles with a host of fattening dairy-esque products! And I made one recently. It was a beautiful thing.

Casseroles get a bad rap, and I will gladly lead the charge of the Casserole Advocacy Club (CAC? Can we make that a thing?) and argue that casseroles deserve a spot, often the starring place, on the dinner table. This one is no exception. It’s that great chicken marsala, with a side of rice that you didn’t have time to prepare on the spot. You can prep this whenever you have the time, tuck it in the fridge, and greet it on an evening when all you want to do is throw something in the oven and call it dinner.

To make Marsala Chicken and Mushroom casserole, you will need:

2 C shredded, cooked, chicken breast
2 T butter
10 – 16 oz sliced mushrooms (white or cremini)
1 1/2 – 2 T flour
1/2 C marsala, or other white, wine
1/2 C cream
2 tsp. fresh thyme
salt and pepper
1 C long grain rice (uncooked)
2 C water

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and grease a 9 x 13 casserole dish.

Melt butter in large skillet. Add mushrooms and cook till softened, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle in flour and stir till incorporated into mushrooms and butter, about 1 minute. Add wine and scrape brown bits off bottom of pan. Stir in cream. Let those simmer, stirring occasionally, until sauce is slightly thickened, about 3 minutes. Stir in water.

Pour rice in casserole dish. Top with chicken. Pour mushroom cream sauce on top. Cover dish tightly with foil and cook for 35 minutes.

At this point, Ray Ray suggests topping with 2 T Parmesan cheese and, and baking, uncovered, 5 more minutes. 2 T of Parmesan over a 9 x 13 casserole is kid stuff. I dumped a whole bunch over my first dinner serving with no shame. Do the same!

Currently

The Side of All Sides

1 Reply

When asparagus season sneaks up on you, you know warm weather is here to stay. You can pack the sweaters and fleeces away and break out your open toed shoes. And the thing is, when asparagus season, and thus, warm weather is here, you probably don’t want to crank up your oven to 400 and roast those little green spears.

Dear readers,

I found a better way.

Chop up an ounce or two or three of pancetta, or bacon, if that’s all you have. Cook on a skillet till brown and crispy. Remove, bacon to another plate, reserving the fat in the pan. Measure out 1/3 C panko breadcrumbs (this is way more because my hand slipped). Acting quickly, add the panko, stir once or twice till crumbs turn brown (this happens almost instantly), and remove pan from heat. Remove panko from skillet. Give the pan a swirl of olive oil or a pat of butter and set it back over heat. Place one bunch asparagus in skillet, and cook over high heat for a couple of minutes, say, 5. Layer asparagus, salt, pepper, panko, and bacon on a serving plate. Dig in to the best thing to happen since, well, roasted asparagus.

Ohmigosh, Hi!

3 Replies

Dear readers, I disappeared! I apologize. I’m back. I’m home for more than 3 days at a time. And I’m cooking. I missed it. I thought I was sick of it. And then I made lasagna. Oh, I missed it.

*Fun fact, I never layer lasagna the same way twice. I just make it up as I go.

And then I made my favorite risotto.

And I’ve got plans to make something new tomorrow. And cupcakes on Thursday. So I’m back. I missed you. How are you?

Bubble, Bubble, Pasta Pot

2 Replies

We’re taking this week to get to know each other a little, dear readers. It doesn’t mean there won’t be anything food related, but if you’re here to see what I ate for dinner, check back next week.

If you recognize those words, it’s probably because a long time ago, you were in third grade. And you read Strega Nona. You know, the story by Tomie dePaola about Big Anthony, who doesn’t know what’s good for him and thinks he can make pasta as well as this beloved, grandmother figure. Spoiler alert: he can’t–hilarity ensues.

While in Rome, my goal was, of course, to eat like a local. No neon-sign “OPEN,” or dinner at 6:30 for me, thank you. I’d wander the roads with my husband in tow, till we found a suitable establishment. Somewhere that recognizes the sacredness of gnocchi Thursday, and wine at any hour and every meal. And oh, was I ever discerning. It didn’t matter how hungry we were, if I thought a place was too touristy, it was onward! for the two of us.

It’s how I ended up eating a meal cooked by Strega Nona herself.

My husband and I wandered off on the 27th of December, in search of a sandwich shop about which our friends raved. It wasn’t too close, but we figured by the time we arrived, we’d be ready to mangia with the best of them. And then we couldn’t find it. And then I was starving. And then it was closed. And then I was cranky. We settled on the closest available option, Trattoria Der Pallaro. It looked neighborhood-y enough, but by this point in our trip we found that it was really hard to tell whether you were about to eat a traditional Roman meal, or a touristy bowl of pasta.

We were escorted to a little table upon my “per due” request, and the waiter came over. As the three of us stumbled through some sort of Spanglish-Italian conversation, we established that 1. No, we did not know “how it works here,” and 2. There is no menu at Trattoria Der Pallaro. There is food and they will bring it to your table and you will eat it. The waiter left and my husband broke it down for me, adding elaborations like, “I bet it’s eel,” or, “Tripe is a traditional Roman food, so I’m sure that will be on the table somewhere.”

Remember that I was tired. And hungry. That’s the worst possible Jennie you could encounter. She’s a train wreck. She does not want to entertain the possibility that she might need to eat tripe.

I threw a minor temper tantrum, as much as one can throw a temper tantrum in a small, family-run operation when others are arms-length away. We were seated. We couldn’t up and leave.

And of course, it was the best. meal. ever. All the dishes you see above proceeded out to our table in staggering portions, over the course of two hours. Strega Nona’s husband came over mid-bite of pork, put his hand over mine, and helped me dip my forkful back in the serving bowl of sauce. That’s not rude in Italy? I knew I would like it here! I didn’t touch another bite for a full 24 hours. This meal helped me understand the word sustenance.
This is probably about the place I should insert a knowing comment, like, I’ll never complain about what’s for lunch again. But I’m picky, and so I will. Besides, it will never live up to my Italian lunch to end all lunches.

Life Book

1 Reply

Whenever people find out I use a paper planner, they laugh at me.

“Isn’t everything on your phone?” (no)

“Don’t you have a Google calendar?” (also, no)

It’s not for lack of trying. It’s just a part of the 21st century I can’t quite get into. People call this little beauty my life book, and I love them for it. I can’t make a move without it.

But it also has competition.

Because this is my second life book. It’s technical name is Project Life, but to CV(D) and everyone she shows it off to, it’s my life book. It has my whole life.

Project Life is a memory keeping system designed by Becky Higgins to simplify the scrapbooking process. When I was a lowly high school student I had gobs of time on my hands (Oh, I didn’t know it then, I thought I was soooo busy) and I would bust out the rubber cement for hours of scrappy fun. And then I went to college. And then I got a job. And those hours I used to carve out for putting stickers on paper just weren’t there anymore. At least not back to back the way they used to be.

Enter Project Life. Slip some photos in pockets and you’re done. I could tell you so much about it, but these three ladies do it better than I. I follow them along each and every week and snitch so many good ideas from their layouts. And rather than blather on about how much I love Project Life, I figured I’d just show you.

Isn’t it a beaut? Photos. Pockets. Stickers when/where you like. Done and done. I have all of 2012 recorded and am inching my way through 2013. I’ve simplified the process even more this year, with less scrapbook stuff. Just photos, paper, and pens. I thought the whole thing looked a little random and thrown together (after all, it is) at first, but once you have several weeks under your belt, you start to see the importance of recording not just the big stuff, but the little stuff too. Flipping through last year’s album lets me see so many parts of the year I may have otherwise forgotten.

Are you a scrapbooker? Have you tried Project Life? I cannot say enough good things about it!

a glass of milk