I'm It

Today is one of those rare days that it rains all day. What's even more shocking is that yesterday was the same way! I can spend a lazy morning at the computer and not feel guilty that I'm not outside enjoying the sunshine.

I was so kindly tagged by Lost in Space at No Regrets.

Here are the rules:

1. Link to the person who tagged you

2. Post the rules to your blog

3. Write 6 random things about myself

4. Tag 6 people at the end of your post and link to them

5. Let each person you have tagged know by leaving a comment on their blog.

6. Let the tagger know when your entry is posted.

Here are my 6 random things:

1. I can order a beer in Wolof, an African language that is only spoken in West African country of Senegal. Never mind that the majority of Senegalese are Muslim and therefore, purportedly do not drink. There are enough bad Muslims around and Catholics to find a beer even in the village of 1500 people I lived in. I'll have another beer is, "Bugge naa beneen biere". Yes that last word is French, but I guess Wolof never had beer until the French came along. They did, however, have palm wine, which is made from the watery sap of palm trees. Let's just say it's an acquired taste and won't be putting any Argentinian wineries out of business anytime soon. Oh yeah, and where's the bathroom in Wolof is, "ana wanag wi?"

2. Wow, six things? This is going to be hard!

3. When I moved to the current state I live in, I vowed I would never 1) mountain bike and 2) rock climb. Now I do both. I had had a bad experience mountain biking earlier, but that was before the days of shocks on mountain bikes. I've since gone on a 100 mile mountain biking trip in the Canyonlands of Utah. The landscape there looks like something out of Star Wars, except that it's real. It's really hard to believe.

The first time I went rock climbing, I was terrified. I also wanted to do it again immediately. It has that kind of pull. I'm pretty timid by the standard of hard core rock climbers that live in my town. The first "big wall" I climbed was in Caymen Brac, one of the two smaller Caymen Islands. Magic and I were the only climbers on the island at the time. I rappelled down a 150 foot sea cliff. Magic belayed me from the top. It was just me, the sea turtles, and the crabs at the bottom of the cliff, with waves lapping just below me. The climb was within my ability, but I was scared shitless. It's really hard to climb when you are focused on dying. Yes, I eventually want to do it again now that I have a lot more outdoor climbing experience. Those big walls still scare me though.

4. When I make a traditional Christmas dinner, it takes two days to make and it does not include a large slab of meat, like turkey, ham or rack of lamb. I make homemade lasagna to die for, like my Grandma from Italy did. First, you make about a thousand itty bitty meatballs that are the size of a marble. I'm not kidding about this. The pasta is all homemade, and there are many layers in the lasagna, kind of like phyllo dough, only thicker. My Grandma also used to put slices of hard boiled egg between her layers of pasta. It sounds weird, and the eggs get kinda rubbery for leftovers, so I've left that part of it out. Too bad I can no longer eat gluten. I haven't made this lasagna in a couple of years now that I have completely given up gluten. I finally figured out that it affects my moods. Dairy doesn't seem to agree with me much these days either. There goes Italian tradition! Thank god for pesto and gluten free pasta from Tinkyada!

5. I've had a professional manicure and pedicure once in my life, and that was on my wedding day. I couldn't chose a color, so I just chose clear. I'm am such not a girly-girl. I do not get the whole getting-your-nails-done thing. For awhile, I felt deficient about this and started painting my toenails. I did it myself as it seemed like such a waste of money to pay someone else to do it. I'd rather spend my hard earned cash on a massage or a meditation retreat. Rock climbing and nail polish do not mix, so at least I have an excuse not to do it. Magic got me a day at a spa last Christmas that I still haven't cashed in on. It included a pedicure and manicure. My brain just goes tilt over this one. Who has the money to pay for pedicures and manicures when you are trying to pay off your IVF bills?

6. Elvis died on my birthday, which is today. I vaguely remember all the brouhaha when it happened as a kid. Happy anniversary of Elvis' death!

I tag:

1. Eurydice at Geeks from Rome.

2. Fumbling Towards Eggstacy.

3. Spicy Sister at Spicy Sister.

4. The Muser at Musings Musings Musings.

5. Meg at The Wrong Side of the Statistics.

6. Peesticks and Stones.

Trigger Happy

Sorry to any of you lovely pregnant ladies who I may have offended by removing your link from my "real-time" blog roll. I should have moved you all to the other area where I don't have the real time links that flash your latest post title, but I got a bit trigger happy last night.

If you want to be on my blog roll in the "safe" area, I'm happy to add you back. Just drop me a line in the comments or e-mail. I didn't like it that when I got pregnant, a bunch of my regular readers disappeared or seemed to have gotten bitter. Let me tell you in no uncertain terms that this is my issue, not yours. I'm not about being exclusive either. I'm just amazed that anyone would want to read my dribble, let alone be on my blog roll.

Yeah, still processing on my end. Hopefully, I'll get my sense of humor back one of these days. I used to have one, believe it or not.

Oh, and I think I've figured out how to move around in Blogger without having to go to my "dashboard", where the Blogger Team is with their let-me-show-you-pictures-of-my-babies-cuz-I-haven't-flaunted-them-
enough post. Hence the reason I'm posting again. Makes me really appreciate the ladies who put those pictures with advanced warnings at the bottom of their posts!

Going Blogger

I'm sorry, but I had to do it for my sanity. I removed some of my favorite pregnant bloggers from my "real-time" blog roll. I just couldn't stand to see the posts titled with each week of pregnancy. I am happy for you, but it is a painful reminder to me that I should have been happy when I was pregnant, but I wasn't. It just makes me feel deficient.

Then, I check in to Blogger today to be bombed by three, count them THREE baby pictures that I have to look at for god knows how long of babies from the Blogger Team. Frankly my "team", I don't give a damn. If I could figure out how to send them an e-mail and maybe an f-bomb, I'd do it. It's bad enough that I have to avert my eyes every time I go to the grocery store and get bombarded at the checkout by the gossip magazines of celebrity babies, but now on Blogger? Anyone else annoyed about that? Instead of going postal, I'm going blogger. You won't see me around here until those pictures move down to the bottom of my sign-in page!

Throw Me A Bone

Wondering where I've been?

This is a private post. Click here if you have access.

Expecto Patronum!

I've been seeing my patronus around lately. I saw them this morning and again this evening. I wasn't feeling particularly happy when I saw them, quite the opposite. Maybe it's an encouraging sign for me, to "buck" up, your patronus is here to keep the Dementors away. Those Dementors have been circling me lately, sucking the happiness out of me. I can feel them draining my life spirit. I can use all the encouragement I can get right now. I'm still grieving. It's been three months.

Don't know what your patronus is? Take this quiz to find out which patronus you would create. It's kinda silly, but what the heck?!

S & T: Life is too short for bad olive oil

or how to make killer pesto

summer basil harvest means pesto-a-plenty!

In my house, two things will cause a riot: running out of garlic or olive oil or both. Milk we can live without for a day. If there are no eggs, then it's oatmeal for breakfast. But no olive oil?! There really isn't anything you can substitute for it. The same goes for garlic. I grew up with good home Italian cooking. My parents bought olive oil by the gallon. I think olive oil is necessary to keep my motor running properly. I've even converted my Jewish Eastern European descent husband to crave olive oil and garlic.

I am constantly trying different brands of extra virgin olive oil to find the best one at the cheapest price. Some people look at the color and appreciate the taste of a fine wine. I do the same with olive oil. The bottle of olive oil I recently bought on sale was so bitter, I stopped making dinner and went out to buy a fresh bottle. Life is just too short to eat bad olive oil. It's so bad, I'm going to return it.

The reason I taste olive oils is that a fine olive oil is critical to good tasting pesto. It's pesto harvest season in my garden. If the olive oil is too bitter, it will ruin your pesto. Some extra virgin olive oils do have a bitter aftertaste. I usually save those for sautéing. Choose the smoother tasting olive oils for your pesto. Lean in closer while I tell you how to make the finest pesto that money can't buy.

First, you need to grow your own basil, unless you have wads of cash lying around that need to be spent. You'll burn through a small fortune buying fresh basil at the farmer's market or grocery store if you make pesto the way I do, with LOTS of basil!

It's hard to believe that I'm a die hard basil lover now. My mom always grew basil, along with flat leaved parsley, for her Italian cooking. My brothers, knowing that I didn't like the smell of basil as a child, used to chase me around the yard, trying to shove basil up my nose. I managed to survive that trauma to grow up as a gardener of basil. In fact, I realized in horror the weekend before last, that I was not going to be able to freeze enough basil to get me through the winter on the eight plants I had already planted. I only had enough frozen basil and pesto to get me through January last year on six plants. Luckily, the farmer's market had lots of basil plants on sale this weekend, so I bought two more.

Ingredients for Pesto:
lots of basil
1-2 cloves of garlic
pine nuts, about 1/4 to 1/3 cup
romano cheese (optional), about 1/4 to 1/3 cup or to taste
salt, about 1/4 to 1/2 tsp
olive oil

In order to become a good Italian cook, or a good cook in general, you have to give up the need to have exact quantities. The first time I asked my mom for a recipe for pasta fagioli, the conversation went something like this:

Me: "Can you give me your recipe for pasta fagioli?"
Mom: "Well, you need tomato sauce, cannellini beans, some celery with leaves, ditalini, garlic, some olive oil, and salt and pepper."
Me: "How much do I need of each?"
Mom: "Oh, I don't know. I don't measure quantities. I just sort of wing it."
Me: "But I have no clue what I'm doing!!"

My mom never had the patience to teach me how to cook as a kid. I did manage to inherit the family cooking gene, and now I'm able to use my intuition when I cook. I'm doing the same thing she does, adding ingredients based on experience, intuition, and taste-as-you-add. I'll at least try to give you relative quantities, though every time I make pesto, it's a little bit different. A lot of making pesto is relative to how much you like of each ingredient. I like a lot of basil, and you'll never find that in store bought pesto.

The How to of Pesto Making
I make pesto in a food processor. A blender will work if you don't have a food processor. First, fill the food processor with basil leaves. Grind them down. Put more basil leaves in if you like a lot of basil in your pesto.

Next, add a clove or two of garlic. I don't like a lot of fresh garlic in my pesto, even though it would seem that you can't have enough garlic. A little fresh garlic goes a long way. There are many different types of garlic too, but that's a whole 'nother discussion that I'm not really qualified to get into. I like a mild garlic, which is usually the standard grocery store type.

Then, add the pine nuts and romano. I have never found a good substitute for pine nuts. You just have to bite the bullet and spend the money on them. You can use walnuts, but I think they are too bitter. Process the pine nuts enough that it chops up the nuts, but not enough to make pine nut butter. Pulse the processor if you have to. When it's starts to stick together, stop processing! Ideally, you would want to stop before it starts to stick together, because that's when it tastes like pine nut butter. You'll know what I mean once you've made this mistake. I've done it more often than I'd like to admit.

For cheese, I prefer romano to parmesan. Again, it's what I grew up with. We always had a jar of fresh grated romano cheese in the frig for sprinkling on all our Italian dishes. Romano has more flavor than parmesan, in my opinion, but use what you prefer. For a long time, I could not eat dairy, so you can leave the cheese out and the pesto will taste just fine.

Lastly, add the olive oil and a little bit of salt to taste. Try adding the salt in at 1/4 tsp at a time and taste it as you go. The romano will make the pesto salty tasting, but I like more salt than that. I don't measure the olive oil. I just keep adding it until I get it to a consistency I like. You can pulse or run the food processor each time you add the olive oil. My husband likes his pesto creamier, so he usually puts in the olive oil in first with the basil. You can experiment with which technique you like best.

In the winter time, we often make pesto the same way but with arugula. The taste is different, but it all looks the same in the end:


Ahhh, heaven!

The Bionic Man

Just a quick update on Steve Austin Magic. He came home Wednesday night and has been driving me crazy recuperating ever since. He is walking around on crutches. The first week has been quite painful for him, but that was to be expected. Already, he can tell his gait will be different once he has healed. He'll be better, stronger, and faster than he was before!