"Changes in attitudes"

I think about paris when Im high on red wine
I wish I could jump on a plane
So many nights I just dream of the ocean
God I wish I was sailin again
Oh, yesterdays over my shoulder
So I can't look back for too long
There's just too much to see waiting in front of me
And I know that I just can't go wrong

With these changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes
Nothing remains quite the same
With all of my running and all of my cunning
If I couldn't laugh I just would go insane
If we couldn't laugh we just would go insane
If we weren't all crazy we would go insane


All hail Jimmy Buffett..........

There have been some changes in attitudes around here, and so much of these lyrics strike home.

After a health scare – which, thank Deity, turned out just to be a scare – I have decided it is time to make a few changes.  After all, I am now 59 years old and it occurs to me that I really am no longer young and that I have less time ahead of me than I have behind me. I want to use that time to my advantage, and enjoy it!

So what will I do to change?

1)Set priorities. What do I want to do? Work myself to death? Worry myself to death? Fat chance! More like:  enjoy! relax! Do what I want to do and enjoy doing, rather than what I feel I must do. Of course there are still obligations that must be filled, and they will be, but isn't it better to do it with a light heart than a grudging one?

2)Stop obsessing over work. Cyclingnews survives without me!  I don't get paid to work 24/7, so I don't need to worry about every story out there getting covered, or be hurt when someone complains about the site – or even worry that they don't miss me when I'm not around! Yes, it is my job and I take it seriously, but not all THAT seriously!

3)Cut back on my professional  obligations. This is the tough one that has yet to be answered. Lots of possibilities, but no definite decision.  Yet.

4)Hobbies!  I love to bake and cook.  So do it!  Don't sit there every evening and think, darn, I didn't bake anything today.  Do it instead.  This morning I was up early, the guys were gone by 7 am. and CN work didn't start until 10.  Three whole hours that could go to waste – so I baked chocolate chip cookies and re-discovered the joys of eating a cookie fresh out of the oven.......

5)Turn the computer off?  Don't know what else to do, then just mindlessly surf the net, and check the emails every few minutes “just in case.”  What a waste of time and mental energy! Where's that self-control?

6)Take care of the house.  I hate to clean house, let's be frank.  But it has to be done. Doesn't mean I have to scour things from top to bottom every day, but a few minutes here, a few minutes there, and things will get done.  And there must be some way of making it fun, but I am still waiting to discover that secret!

7)Take care of me and us.  We brag about never going to the doctor, and while it is true we have few health problems, we have also ignore all the routine check-ups.  I spent a lot time this morning setting up appointments and still need to make more. I want to make sure that Norbert and I spend as many years together as possible!

8)To quote another song, “You've got to move it , move it!” Exercise has always been my biggest failure.  I am definitely more sloth-like than anything else – ironic for a sports journalist, yes?   I am not sure how I want to tackle this, although weather permitting I will try and start walking every day. Perhaps we will invest in a stationary bike or something. We do have bikes and could give them the once-over.  The problem right now is that the weather is not at all inviting to go out in, so need to find some kind of indoor solution.  I will look for some sort of exercise class, too.

Whew, that's enough. This has given me a lot to think about, as well, and I hope to refine these points to my own satisfaction to make them as concrete as possible.  Don't just think good deeds, do them, right?

And above all, stay relaxed and light-hearted.  As Jimmy says,
“If I couldn't laugh I just would go insane
If we couldn't laugh we just would go insane
If we weren't all crazy we would go insane”

Susan

Another "Feed the Freezer" day

I was finally getting tired of chicken, and fortunately ground meat was on sale.  You can buy ground beef, ground pork and mixed -- we use the latter.

Having decided on my recipes, I made lists and went shopping.

And this too:

Plus:

Ok, so the strawberries were just because they were on sale and a strawberry shortcake is always good, right?

First thing I did was not meat-related.  I made a double batch of baked rice, which is basically throwing rice and onion soup (or your choice of other seasonings) in the oven for an hour.

I then made double batches of: sauce for penne bolognese casserole, spaghetti bolognese sauce, and Texas hash.

That's how they looked cooling, and this is how they looked packaged up for the freezer:

That was the morning's work.  Took a break and ate lunch and then got back to work.  First up were the two Mexican lasagnes.

And they too got wrapped up for the freezer.

I wanted to make two regular lasagnes, but I was running low on meat by this point, and we looooove our lasagne, so I made one big one:

All the lasagnes will get a grated cheese topping before they get baked and eaten.

Finally, we had to eat that day too, so I tried out a recipe for Taco soup.  Turned out more like Taco stew, think I will add more liquids next time.  Norbert absolutely loved it, so there will definitely be a next time.

And finally, a non-cooking photo, just because we have the cutest Kitty in the whole wide world:

See her hiding in there?

Susan

Thoughts on blogging

I don't seem able to keep this blog going on a regular basis.  I'm not sure if this is because nothing in particular ever happens in my life, or I just don't think any of of it is really worth reporting to the world, or what. 

Not really complaining, I like my quiet life.  But  perhaps I really do need to pep it -- and my blogging -- up a bit.

So, have the day off from CN and time to do some fun things.  Washed all my scarves and hung them outside in the sunshine and fresh air.

I enjoy my scarves.  It is an easy way to pep up an outfit and in fact, stretches the wardrobe enormously.  A nice pair of navy slacks and a white t-shirt can be turned into  many different looking outfits with different scarves.

I think I have too many..... need to check if I really wear them all!

I also like to combine them.  The light pink and the dark pink one go well together, and the dark pink and the teal one, too, for example......

Now, on to food!  One of the grocery stores had a sale on chicken breasts last week.  I think I underestimated just how many 24 skinless boneless chicken breasts are......

One package of three got frozen "as is", two got a barbecue sauce marinade, and one got a Weber "Kickin' Chicken" rub. (Love that name!)

The remaining 20 got cooked and then chopped.

You end up with a LOT of chopped cooked chicken!

Here we have one sauce cooling while the chicken, peas and carrots wait to get added.

This is chicken in curry sauce.

Two bags of chicken curry and two of filling for mini-pot-pies, to go into the freezer.  The mini-pot pies are made in muffin tins.  Can't wait to try them (when it is cooler and I don't mind turning on the oven......)

Two meals of chicken a la king and two of chicken and broccoli.  Had the latter last night and it was far too watery.......

There is still a bunch of chicken left over which will get tossed into tonight's chef salad, and Kitty got her share as well. Far more than her share, actually......

So that is what I have been up to lately.  Plus continuing to clear out the basement and everything else I can.  (WHY do we have all this STUFF????)

Susan

Pizza!

Last time I was in the US I bought the Casserole Queens' cookbook, partially because of the photo of the Chicago Deep Dish Pizza.  Today was finally the day to make it.

Started off by sauteeing (that word sure doesn't look right!) a half pound of mett, or seasoned ground pork -- rather like sausage, an onion and half a green pepper.

That was set aside and garlic was chopped. The last batch of garlic Norbert bought was not the usual cloves, but these  cute little ball-shapped things.

One of them got cut up and sauteed in a bit of olive oil.

Afterwards it got mixed with some tomato paste and then some seasoned tomato sauce.

I lined a large casserole with baking paper and laid out the bottom with sliced mozzerela, which you can't really see.  Then the meat-pepper-onion mixture was put on.

The tomato sauce was poured over that and then the whole thing was covered with grated mozzerala.

This is how it looked going into the oven....

And coming out of the oven!

It actually turned out too liquidy (maybe next time I should measure the tomato sauce).  I also used a smaller pan than called for.

However, the sauce was fantastic, with perhaps just a bit too much garlic (hard to believe that is possible!)

Here is a close-up of the yumminess:

We decided this is worth keeping and tweaking to make it perfect.

And in other news:  We all have lots of work.  At the moment I actually have quite a bit of time off, but between the Tour de France and the Olympics, there has been and is plenty to do. Norbert works late practically every day, as is firm has so feel to do. Of course it is better that they have a lot do do than that they don't, but still......

Our summer has mostly been much too cool and too wet.  Last week it was hot and humid. Apparently that was it for summer!  We are back to cool and wet. I think we have eaten outside once this year, sigh.  Not sure why we have nice patio furniture.

Susan

Summer love

Summer love in this case is summer food. Now that summer has finally arrived here in Germany, it is time to change the meal plan and stop thinking about casseroles and hot ovens.

And start thinking about lovely things like icebox pies.

That is the peanut butter pie from the Tale of the Whale restaurant at the Outer Banks in NC (also known as "Heaven on Earth"). Whipped cream, peanut butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar, all in a chocolote crumb crust.

Calories?  never hear of them......

In the summer one can grill, too.  Fortunately I have a husband who loves to grill and who loves his gas grill.  I found a recipe for  Garlic Balsamico Pork Chops.

First they marinate, as above.  And this is how they look when they are done:

That recipe is definitely to be added to the family recipe book.

And the fun continues:

That's going to be dinner tonight..... at least the first course.

What else is going on? Work, work, work.  We have survived the Tour de France, now the Olympics are upon us, to be followed directly by the Vuelta a Espana.  Whew.

No vacation for us this summer.  Norbert's firm has so much work that he doesn't see clear to taking more than a day off, maybe.  On the other hand, it is much better that the firm has work than that it doesn't, right?

And we still LOVE our new kitchen. It is not only gorgeous but totally practical, what more could you ask?

Susan

I love my kitchen, part two

Let us continue this journey of discovery.

Next to the sink, we have the baking cabinet.  Looks innocent enough, right?

But it has a secret. It was something we splurged on but something that was very important to us.

Those wonderful shelves go all the way into the corner and pull out entirely!

Is that cool, or what?

Turning the corner, we have lots of drawers.  They are very deep and very stabile. And very easy to use, much much easier than cabinets.  In fact, it is very unusual to find lower cabinets today.

And next comes the cooktop.

You will notice that the backsplash all around is the same material as the countertop. You can't really see the cooktop here, but you can see the lovely ventilator. (Is that what its called in english?)

And now on to the cooktop.  It is an induction cooktop, which means it works on magnetic priniciples or something like that, all of which is totally beyond me.  All I know is, it is fast, you can use almost any size pan anywhere, and only the portion of the cooktop immediately under the pan gets hot.

There are three huge drawers underneath it, too.  The top one has a divider and is used for spices and cooking utensils.

The next two have pots and pans.

So let's close out with some general shots.  Here, the sink, window, little shelves, etc. Same curtain as in the old kitchen, but new curtain rod.

The stove area:

And the "tall wall" with the Coffee Counter:

And I made the first batch of muffins today! So now I have used all the new appliances and they all work. I still haven't quite memorized where everything is, but it is getting better and better.

Susan

I love my kitchen!

There turned out to be so many photos, this will have to be a two-parter.

Well, we have had the new kitchen for something like five whole days now, and I still absolutely love it!

The most important place in the entire kitchen is, of course, right at the entrance:

The cat food corner, with the supplies right there at hand.

This one is more important to the humans:  the coffee machine! The coffee mugs are stored in the cabinet underneath.

Speaking of the cabinets underneath, here they are.  They hold (so far) serving dishes, coffee supplies and the overflow of baking supplies.

We then move around the corner to the "Tall Cabinets".

First of all we have the built in microwave and oven.  Underneath are two deep drawers which hold the baking pans and microwave dishes. Love the elevated oven, my back appreciates it soooooo much.

Next is a wonderful pantry, called an Apothecary's cabinet in German.  Anyone know the English name?

And then comes the refrigerator.  Small by American standards, large by German standards.  All the built-in appliances are totally typical, too.

Oops, don't seem to have photographed the fridge door, but you can see it above.  Underneath it is a very deep drawer, which is fantastic for holding tall and heavy stuff.

That's the dishwasher, also built in and disguised.  It flashes the time left on the programme on the floor!  Have to get a photo of that next time I run it.

It's a bit hard to see, but the dish drainer it etched into the stone countertop.  It is not really granite, but some kind of natural stone, virtually indestructible allegedly.

There are two drawers underneath the sink.  Is this clever or what?

and the bottom drawer has built in trash bins, for all the sorting and recycling we have to do:

Hope you enjoy this look at the details in the kitchen.  More to come later!

Susan