Mike and Music

Ten years ago, I lived in Mexico City.  I was studying at a Mexican university and lived, at first, in a place with eight other foreign students.  I have been thinking lately about how quickly time flies, because how is it possible it’s been 10 years?!?  Now, with Facebook, I’m able to keep in touch with friends from that time of my life, and I have really appreciated that about the new Web 2.0 world; I’m connected to several friends from my Mexico days through Facebook.

So…

Today I was at the dog park with Rey.  A guy who was there with a dog Rey was playing with asked me about Rey’s name.  I told him and he introduced himself as the owner of Grace Kelly, a dog who looks a lot like Rey.  That reminded me that his wife and I had met before and bonded over the similarities between the two dogs, and we started chatting.  The guy asked me if I’d gone to school in Arizona or at UCSD, because I looked really familiar.  He also struck me as really familiar, but I thought that was because he reminds me of my friend Jeff…  Anyway, he asked if I’d ever been in Mexico and then it hit me like a bolt of lightning!

He is one of the people who lived in the auberge (French word that roughly translates to guest house.  I don’t know how else to explain the place we lived.) with me!  And now, 10 years later, in a dog park in my hometown, literally a half mile from the place I grew up, I ran into him!

He is working on a PhD in political science at UCSD and that’s what has brought him to San Diego.  He’s been here for a few years and lives really close to where Mike and I live.  He’s from Santa Ana, which is where I now work.  He has a MA in Latin American Studies, as do I.  He has a cute brown dog, and so do I.  We frequent many of the same bars and restaurants.  Apparently we’ve been just missing each other for years.  Weird, but very cool!

I was born and grew up in beautiful San Diego, Calif., so I am very spoiled.  I’m like a hot house flower– I like it just warm enough– not too hot and not too cold.  Fortunately, living in San Diego, I don’t have to worry too often about extremes of temperature, unlike my friends in Denver who are currently contending with a blizzard or relatives in the south who have to deal with awful humidity.  Today was one of those days where I’m thrilled to live in eden.  It was sunny and gorgeous outside, and Rey and I sunned ourselves a bit on our porch swing before taking an afternoon nap.  Now I’m looking out my window and can see the sun setting over downtown.  Not too shabby!

Yesterday morning, I flew to Sacramento to go to a legislative conference with my organization.  Executives and various people (board presidents, volunteers, public affairs people like me, etc.) from across the state gathered to learn about some changes going on within our organization and to hear about our legislative agenda as an organization.  We talked about bills that have been passed that will impact us and some that are at different stages of the process that are of interest to us.  This time, “we,” the organization, support all the bills in their entirety or with amendments, so no lobbying *against* anything.

After cramming a lot of information into my tiny little brain, we went off today to meet with our legislators and/or their staffs.  My chapter covers an entire county, so we have three state senators and nearly a dozen state assemblymen.  I made appointments for us to meet with one senator’s legislative aide, one assemblyman, and one assemblyman’s legislative director.  All the appointments went very well– people are happy to see you when you’re not asking for money for anything– and it was a very interesting experience.  I look at today’s event as an opportunity to begin building relationships with our elected officials, and plan to follow up by making visits to the district offices of each of our state-level officials.

As I type this, I am sitting in the Sacramento airport.  I love this airport because it has free wi-fi.  Woo hoo!  It’s funny, though, because the last time I was here was in November, when I had just been told (literally that day) that I was going gto be laid off from my job.  It’s nice to be here in a better circumstance!

I cannot for the life of me figure out what led me to bakingbites.com.  I don’t usually bake, though my “Recipes” bookmark folder is full of dessert recipes.

I wasn’t sure how much ricotta I would need for my lasagna, and it was on sale 2 for $4, so I bought two containers.  I ended up only using one and started thinking, “hmm, I wonder what else uses ricotta…” Somewhere in my brain, a bell went off, and I remembered that I had a recipe bookmarked for some sort of dessert.

The rest, as they say, is history.

(To be fair, this isn’t terribly dessert-y– it would make a delicious breakfast option. Key word being “delicious.”)

Mixed Berry Ricotta Cakes
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 cup ricotta cheese
1/2 cup milk (lowfat is fine)
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups frozen mixed berries, unthawed

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar
In a medium bowl, stir together melted butter, ricotta, milk, eggs and vanilla until smooth. Pour into dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Fold in berries.
Distribute batter evenly into prepared muffin cups.

Bake for 18-22 minutes, until a tester inserted into the cake part comes out clean.
Cool on a wire rack.
Refrigerate in an airtight container. Cakes will stay moist for several days.

Makes 12. [I actually got 17 out of this recipe.]

Next up is my currently-baking Crock Pot Veggie Lasagna.  I got this recipe from the oh-so-helpful-I-can’t-recommend-it-enough “Year of CrockPotting” blog (crockpot365.blogspot.com).  This woman, Stephanie, pledged to use her Crock Pot at least once a day for a year.  Now she’s publishing a book about it.  Smart lady– I wish I’d had that idea!

Anyway, here’s my adaptation of her recipe.

Ingredients
–box of regular lasagna noodles
–jar/can of pasta sauce [I used a can of Trader Joe's sauce]
–ricotta cheese
–shredded Italian cheese
–mushrooms
–chopped veggies [I used broccoli, onions, mushrooms, and carrots]
–spinach
–sundried tomatoes
–ground meat (optional– I didn’t use any)

Directions
–If you’re using meat, brown it and then pour the jar of pasta sauce in with it.  Save the jar/can, you’ll need it later!
–Put a ladle-full of sauce (or sauce and meat) into the bottom of your CrockPot.
–Top with a layer of dried lasagna noodles, breaking them to fit.
–Smear ricotta cheese on top of lasagna noodles
–Layer chopped veggies and spinach on top of the ricotta
–Add a handful of the shredded cheese
–Ladle on some more of the sauce
–Top with more dry noodles and repeat layers until the CrockPot is to desired capacity.
–Put 1/4 cup of water into your empty pasta jar/can and shake.  Pour the contents over the whole pile of food.  [I didn't read the directions very carefully and ended up filling up my entire pasta sauce jar/can with water and pouring it in.  We'll see how that works when the food is done.]
–Cover and cook on low for 8 hours, high for 4.
–Check noodles an hour before serving, and push the top ones down into the liquid if they are getting too hard or are curling up.

I’ve done a decent amount of cooking in the last couple of hours, which is good for you (readers) because that means I have recipes to post!  First up, sweet and sour chicken.

I got this recipe from “Amber’s Delectable Delights,” who borrowed it from a couple of places.  The original recipe called for ketchup, but we didn’t have any, so I used raspberry jam.  What I’ve realized now that it’s done cooking– and it was delicious– is that if I used marmalade instead, it’d be like Orange Chicken, which I love.  The recipe shows my adapation of the one posted on Amber’s blog (amberskitchen.blogspot.com).

-Makes 4 servings -

Chicken Ingredients
3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 cup cornstarch
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup canola oil

Directions
Cut boneless chicken breasts into chunks. Season with salt and pepper.
Dip chicken in cornstarch and then in egg. Fry in a little oil until brown but not cooked through. Place in a single layer in a baking dish. Mix sauce ingredients (below) together and pour over chicken.

Sauce Ingredients
¾ cup sugar
4 raspberry jam
½ cup vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon garlic salt

Directions
Bake for one hour at 325 degrees. Turn chicken every 15 minutes. If you like extra sauce, make another batch of sauce and bring it to a boil on the stove top. Stir constantly and let cook over medium heat until thickened and reduced - about 6-8 minutes.

We served it with stir fry veggies and Thai jasmine rice.

(I was too late in telling Mike to make it look fancy when he plated it, so it just looks like regular, not artful food.  Next time I’ll give him more warning.)

A friend’s partner of almost 20 years passed away a few days ago, and the service is today.  After the service, they’re doing a reception at a private home, and asked friends to bring a dish to share.  I am bringing my take on the “Antipasto Squares” recipe Mike found (and made) the other day on allrecipes.com (to view the original, head over there and search for the title).

• 2 (10 ounce) cans refrigerated crescent dinner rolls
• 1/4 pound ham
• 1/4 pound sliced provolone cheese
• 1 (12 ounce) jar roasted sundried tomatoes, drained
• 3 eggs
• 3 tablespoons grated Feta cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

2. Unroll one package of crescent roll dough, and cover the bottom of a 9×13 inch pan. Layer the ham, provolone cheese, and sundried tomatoes, on top of the dough.

(This is what it looked like through step 2)

3. In a bowl, beat the eggs lightly, and stir in the Feta cheese and black pepper. Pour 3/4 of this mixture over the peppers. Unroll the second package of dough, and place over the top of the peppers. Brush with the remaining egg mixture. Cover with aluminum foil.

4. Bake for 25 minutes in the preheated oven. Remove foil, and bake another 20 minutes, or until dough is fluffy and golden brown.   (Mike suggested turning the oven onto convection with about 5 minutes left, so it would brown up even nicer on top.)  Cut into squares. Serve warm, or at room temperature.

(The finished product, before being cut into squares)

Music got Rey a huge bone yesterday — bigger than him!

I have two phones– a personal PDA and a BlackBerry for work.  The other day, I took my BB to a meeting, so I put it on vibrate.  After the meeting, I returned to my office and started doing some work.  My BB was still on vibrate and it kept going off, each time I received an email.  Mind you I get about a million emails a day.  I wasn’t conscious of it at the time, but it was making me feel like I was under some sort of huge pressure.  Big time crunch.  Lots to do, no time to do it.  It was terrible.

Finally it dawned on me that the constant buzzing of the BB was making me incredibly stressed out.  I turned it to “phone only,” meaning it only makes a sound if I’m getting a call, and my blood pressure– which is high anyway– dipped from its stratospheric level.

Never mind BlackBerry thumb.  I almost suffered a Crackberry overdose!

I am not one of these people who is super in touch with my mental state, but I’m glad I put two and two together and figured out a way to calm down.  Now if only I could quiet my mind enough to meditate, or at least to go into a zen state when stuck in traffic on my way to/from work…

Posting on MikeandMusic.com has once again been a little slow.  In this instance, it’s a “no news is good news” thing.  I’ve been really busy with work and Mike has been busy picking up the slack since I’m not at home much during waking hours.  I still am enjoying my job, and the commute is still bearable.

We have one vacant apartment, and our other unit’s tenant gave notice last week.  Yup, that means we will have TWO vacancies as of April 1 if we don’t find someone.  We’re being picky about who we rent to, so that’s part of why we have the vacancy after a couple of months, but it also seems to be a renter’s market these days.  There are lots of places for rent out there, which surprises me since I figured with people losing their homes, the demand for rentals would go up.  I guess that’s why I do PR (as opposed to being an economist).

This Saturday will be our 1 year anniversary of being a family of three (not including Beatrice, my stuffed bear, who is very dear to me).  One year ago, I made the purchase of a lifetime and Rey came to live with me and Mike.  In some ways, it feels like he’s been with us for much longer, and in other ways, I can’t believe it’s already been a year!

I’m off to watch the “Top Chef” reunion.  Cheers!