Mike and Music

About two weeks ago, Mike started getting sick and I knew I wasn’t far behind.  Last week, all week, I felt a cold coming on, but my body was kind enough to hold off on succumbing until after I’d put in a long day of work on Saturday.  Then I collapsed into my cold, spending the rest of last Saturday and all of Sunday and Monday in bed.  Mike, meanwhile, was better, but still not 100%.  Well now, after going to a conference Tuesday night through this morning, I’m still sick.  I’d made some improvement in getting healthy, but last night, I had a setback and felt terrible.

I’m supposed to staff an event at work this Sunday, but it’s not looking good right now unless I recover.  Anyone want to share favorite remedies for getting over a cold?

The song says that Christmas time is the most wonderful one of the year.  Well, that’s wrong.  The most wonderful time of the year is NBA Playoff time!  As I type this, I’m settled in front of our big screen, watching the Lakers thump the Jazz and looking forward to watching a ton of games in coming weeks.  Woo hoo!

Mike and I got a CrockPot as a wedding gift, and as you may have noticed, I use it fairly frequently.  I love the simple ease of throwing food into it and then coming home to delicious scents wafting my way and a whole meal “already ready already.”

That’s why I was disappointed when, after only a couple of months, the handle on the CrockPot broke.  I just shrugged it off and lived with it until a couple of weeks ago, when the hinge on the CrockPot broke, too.  Bummer!

I sent a note through the CrockPot website inidicating my dissatisfaction and had an email exchange with the customer service people.  Hilarity ensued as I tried to find the date code hidden on the plug.  Finally we got it figured out, and I’m thrilled to report that today I got an “order confirmation” email.  The CrockPot people are sending me a brand new CrockPot!  I didn’t ask for that, and would have been happy with a new lid!  They also sent me a coupon code for 10% off my next purchase through their online store (JardenStore.com) through 6/14/09.

This is a great example of excellent customer service, and one reason why we registered for a CrockPot as opposed to a generic slow cooker!

Mike and I got back from Vegas this evening.  We had a great trip, but being on vacation is tiring!

Thursday, we headed out.  We’ve started a new tradition of stopping for Chipotle in Loma Linda, so we did that, and got to Vegas about 9:30.  We checked into The Trump, which was very nice.  Mike and I really liked the (Strip-view) room, which had a kitchenette (fridge, microwave, range, flatware and dishes, plus extras like a salad spinner, teapot, and blender), enormous bathroom with spa tub and a tv embedded into the mirror, sitting area with comfy chairs and a tic-tac-toe board, and lots of other nice touches like an alarm clock with iPod dock.

After dropping off our stuff, we walked around the strip for a while then crashed.  The next morning, we picked up Mike’s mom and stepdad at the airport and then went to breakfast at a little local place called Jamms (jammsrestaurant.com).  Delicious!  Then back to the strip for more wandering around.

Outside of TI

We spent a lot of time at the Venetian this trip, partly because it was close to our hotel (we were in the north strip area), partly because it’s Mike’s favorite resort, and partly because Laura and Var really love Italy and enjoyed being reminded of their time there.

Mike taught Var the basics of craps and we were off and running.  I wanted to take everyone to the Mai Tai bar at the Imperial Palace (which no longer does two for one happy hours– boo), so we had a drink there and then gambled some.  Var did very well on craps and I ended up on a loose slot machine.

With our winnings

Saturday, Laura and I hit the spa, where we were treated like queens.   Each of us had a massage and a facial and a pedicure, and it was lovely.  Happy Mother’s Day to us!  That night, we saw the Blue Man Group at the Venetian.  I wasn’t expecting much, but it was really good!  Very entertaining and interactive.

This isn’t a real Blue Man, but you get the idea

Sunday, we walked more, gambled more and ate more.  Started at the south end of the strip and played some roulette in New York, New York.  Visited the M&M store.

Hit the buffet at Planet Hollywood (which wasn’t nearly as good as the last time Mike and I ate there), then retreated to our respective rooms to rest and come out of our food comas.  Mike and I spent some time at the pool, and then the whole gang headed to downtown Las Vegas on The Deuce.

We were pooped by the time we got downtown, but managed to spend several hours there.  We saw a lot of interesting things– a Russian guy who did balancing acts on a wire strung several feet off the ground, a couple of Freemont Street Experience shows, and the private parts of a drunk girl who wasn’t wearing any underwear.  Ah, Vegas.  After dragging Var away from the craps table, we made a quick stop at the Rock ‘N Roll McDonalds for some late night grub and then went home to recover.

This morning was very chill.  We all slept in then piled into the car and went to breakfast at another local joint, Hash House (www.hashhouse.net/).  [Note: there's also a Hash House A Go Go in Vegas, but this is NOT that place.]  Dropped the ‘rents off at the hotel so they could check out and catch their flight back to Denver, and then Mike and I got on the road.

All in all, it was a great trip.  We spent way too much money, but had an equivalent amount of fun.  Now it’s back to real life.

[I made all the pictures in this post small so that it would load faster than when I put in larger ones.  What do you think?]

(Each time we go to Vegas and I post about it, I think, “I should title it, ‘Vegas, baby!’  Then I think, “don’t I always think that?  How many ‘Vegas, baby!’ posts do we have?”  This time I Gogled it, and there’s one.  Plus this one.)

Mike and I are heading off to Vegas for a long weekend of relaxing.  We’re meeting Mike’s mom and stepdad there and plan to take in at least one show (Blue Man Group) and hit the spa.  Other than that, our plans are pretty generic: eat, drink and be merry.  I love to people watch, and Vegas is a great place for it.   I’ll gamble a little bit, but I usually leave that to Mike.  Still, the craps tables are calling my name…

Outside of my very first time in Vegas, which didn’t happen until I was in college, this is the first time I’ve ever been to the city with someone other than friends (a category that includes Mike).  No clubbing or excessive drinking on this trip, I think, but that’s not a bad thing.  I’m not as young as I used to be and can’t hang with the kids anymore!

I’ll share stories when we’re back.

One more recipe.  After last night’s soup, I washed out the CrockPot and today threw in all the ingredients to make some yummy rice pudding.  Recipe adapted from Stephanie, the guru of CrockPots over at A Year of CrockPotting.

Ingredients

8 cups milk (I used 2%, but anything else– including soy milk– would work fine, too)
1 cup long grain white rice
1 cup sugar
1 cup raisins
1/4 cup heavy cream or half and half (I used half-and-half)
3 eggs
4 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions

Spray the stoneware insert with cooking spray, then combine the milk, rice, and sugar.  Stir well and cook on high for about 2 hours.

Stir in raisins, then cook for another hour.

When the rice is tender, mix in a large mixing bowl, the eggs, cream, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt. Scoop a 1/2 cup of the hot rice mixture into the mixing bowl and whisk. Keep adding 1/2 cup at a time of the rice and milk mixture into the egg bowl until about half of the milk and rice mixture is gone from the CrockPot. Then pour everything back into the CrockPot. Stir well.  (CrockPot 365 says, “This is called ‘tempering your eggs’—you have to do this step, or your eggs will scramble on you when you add them to the Crock.”)

Cover and cook on low for 1 hour. Stir well, then take the lid off of the crockpot and unplug it. When the rice pudding is room temperature, you can refrigerate it.

I like my rice pudding cold, so I’m waiting for this bad boy to cool down.  It’s the perfect dessert for a hot day because preparing it doens’t warm up the house and it’s delicious (and not terribly unhealthy, though it’s also not terribly healthy) once it’s cold.

This recipe is courtesy of my source for all things CrockPot– A Year of CrockPotting!  Haven’t tried it yet, but I can smell it cooking and I’m hoping it will be hearty and delicious.  Mike and I are going to Vegas next weekend, so some of this may get frozen and eaten when we come back.  That way we won’t have to cook immediately upon returning home.

Ingredients
–3 cans white beans (The original recipe called for 1 can white kidney beans, 1 can pinto beans, and 1 can garbanzo beans, but I just used three cans of the same)
–1 t thyme
–4 spicy chicken or turkey sausages (original recipe called for 2-4 sausages, but I’d rather have a little meat in each bite)
–1 chopped yellow onion (original recipe called for 1/2 chopped onion, but mine were small, so I used a whole one)
–1 cup leftover rice pilaf (I just used plain white rice, because that’s what I had)
–2 cups chopped broccoli and carrots (I didn’t measure how many cups of chopped veggies I used, but I’d guess 1 1/2 cups each)
–1 quart chicken or vegetable broth (Very excited about this one– I used the veggie broth Mike made from scratch!)

Directions
Drain your beans and throw them into your crock. Chop up the veggies into small pieces.  Slice the sausage.  Cook on low for 6-9 hours, or on high for 4-5. The soup is done when it’s heated through and the vegetables are tender.  The beauty of the CrockPot is that that’s all you have to do!  Easy peasy.

The last few weekends, I’ve tried to spend a few hours making a couple of dishes to eat throughout the week.  This is mainly my attempt to keep us eating somewhat healthily and somewhat affordably.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.  If you read this blog often, you’ve seen the recipes I’ve posted, and pictures of the meals I’ve made, and hopefully they inspire you to try one or two.  Tonight, I am making two dishes– Italian Baked Chicken & Pastina and a White Bean and Sausage Soup.  First up: the pasta.

I got this recipe from the blogger who writes “Heather Drive,” a blog I love.  It’s mostly about the life of a NY girl named Heather– her dog, her hubby, her cooking habits.  I don’t know her in real life, but it’s fun to follow her online.  She got this recipe from Giada de Laurentiis’s show in the Food Network.

The dish was yummy, and relatively easy, though it did dirty a lot of dishes.  Mike liked it, too, which isn’t always the case with recipes I try.  Based on those factors, I highly recommend you try this one!

Ingredients:
- 1 box small pasta (I used rigatoni)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 lb. cubed chicken breast (1-inch cubes)  (I used 4 chicken breasts)
- 1 cup diced onion (about one small onion)
- 2 clove garlic, minced (I used garlic powder– 1 tsp = 2 gloves garlic)
- 2 (14.5-ounce) cans seasoned (e.g., “Italian” with basil, olive oil, garlic, etc.) diced tomatoes with juice
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella
- 1/2 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley (I didn’t have any parsley, so I skipped this)
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 cup bread crumbs
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan (I actually thought this made too much topping.  You could probably use 1/4 cup bread crumbs and 1/4 cup Parmesan instead)
- 1 tablespoon butter, plus more for buttering the baking dish

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

2. Bring a medium pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until just tender, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Drain pasta into a large mixing bowl.

3. Meanwhile, put the olive oil in a medium saute pan over medium heat. Add the chicken and cook for 3 minutes.

4. Add the onions and garlic, stirring to combine, and cook until the onions are soft and the chicken is cooked through, about 5 minutes more.

5. Put the chicken mixture into the bowl with the cooked pasta. Add the canned tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, parsley, salt, and pepper. Stir to combine. Place the mixture in a buttered 9″ x 13″ x 2″ baking dish.

6. In a small bowl, mix together the bread crumbs and the Parmesan cheese. Sprinkle over the top of the pasta mixture. Dot the top with small bits of butter.

7. Bake until the top is golden brown, about 30 minutes.

Sorry I didn’t take a picture.  I was too busy eating!