Superbowl Sunday

I am not including recipes this time, just because they are so basic and can be found on food.com.

They both turned out amazing though and I will say I think the trick to cooking pizza right is putting it in the oven for 5 or 10 minutes first before any toppings so it cooks and gets crispy.

SO YUMMY.

This is a picture of my very first Chicago style deep dish pizza. I love pizza in all its forms, and yes you will probably catch me grabbing for a thin sliced New York style pizza faster than this, but I cannot explain how amazing the deep dish is!! it's unique and tasty for sure!

To stay on track:

When I feel overwhelmed, I look to other sources for positivity. I am trying to remain on top of my a-game and am trying to stay positive even when negativity is kicking my teeth in. It is not easy. Here are some quotes that are helping me seek understanding.

"If you judge people, you have no time to love them."
— Mother Teresa

Some people in my life are having a tough time getting over my imperfections. They are constantly trying to drag me down and rub my face in my mistake. It's not helping me at all, and it makes sense that while they are doing this, judging me, they also do not have time to truly love me. It is not fair, but it is the way it is.

"It is better to be hated for what you are than loved for what you are not."
— André Gide

I suppose I must deal with people hating me for making my mistake. It is better for them to hate me for being a person with errors and imperfections, than being loved the way I was, unhappy and abusing alcohol to seek out happiness. When, now, with the realization that I was going down a dark and dangerous path, I can change and be happy and healthy. I'd rather be hated for making a mistake, then loved and continuing to hurt myself.

"It is never too late to be what you might have been."
— George Eliot

Just because things happen and you lose track, doesn't mean you can't ever get back on track. To err' is human. We can always be what we might have been. We can always be what we want to be.


"Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Bad things happen, it is up to us to move on and take each new day on with optimism and hope that things will get better. There is always a new day, and there is no reason to carry on with should have could have would haves of the past. The only thing we can change is now.


"I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everyone."
— Bill Cosby

For as long as I live people will withhold expectations for me. Sometimes, I will be able to meet them. Sometimes I will not. Sometimes people will not be able to accept me as I am. I will not progress if I let these people falter or ruin my steps and if I try to change myself to please their needs.

"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on."
— Robert Frost

Although at times we may wish that life could stop and we could go back. Life moves forward. No matter what, life goes on. It continues, the best you can do is to move with it and do the best you can to make the future brighter.


"If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals."
— J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire)

People who treat those who are beneath them as they are crap, are not good people. People that treat those below them with respect and help them on their way, are good people.

Tuna Noodle Casserole

• 8 oz. dried medium noodles
• 16 oz package frozen whole or cut green beans
• 1/2 cup fine dry bread crumbs
• 2 tbsp butter or margarine
• 2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms
• 1 1/2 cups chopped red or green sweet pepper
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1 cup sliced celery
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 10.75 oz cans condensed cream of mushroom or celery soup
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup shredded process Swiss or American cheese
• 2 9.25 oz cans of tuna drained and flaked

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Cook noodles according to package directions, adding the green beans the last 3 minutes of cooking. Drain and set aside. Meanwhile, toss the bread crumbs with the 2 tablespoons melted butter; set aside.
1. In an extra large skillet melt 2 tablespoons butter over medium heat. Add mushrooms, sweet peppers, onion, celery, and garlic. Cook and stir until vegetables are tender. Add soup milk, and cheese, stirring until cheese is melted. Stir in tuna, cooked noodles, and green beans.
2. Spoon tuna mixture into a 3 quart casserole. Sprinkle bread crumb mixture around outside edge of casserole. Bake, uncovered, for 30-35 minutes or until baked through and bread crumbs are golden.
   

The Life Before Her Eyes

Okay, this post is going to include movie spoilers, so if you hate them and would like to watch the movie on your own first, then don't read the rest of this.

So, I decided I wanted to watch a movie this morning, opened up netflix and a movie they recommended was "the life before her eyes". It's a movie about a school shooting, perhaps I watched it a little too soon to the Tuscon events, but I cried my eyes out. I hate the idea of shootings. That all of these innocent people just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I can't understand it. I don't know how any person has it in them to hurt another.

Okay so this movie is being shot back and forth between a teenage girl, and that girl as an adult. It's not as confusing like some of the movies with shot like this can be. You are well aware that it is the same girl and they are going back and forth between her life then and her life now.

It was a variety of different important events for the girl, and her learning experience. A quote that I feel needs to be brought up, "Conscience is the voice of God in the nature and heart of man." was delivered by a "professor" in the film. It is a quote that I truly believe in, and I believe the girl does as well. She is also very inspired by the her science teacher informing her, "And if there's anything I want you guys to take with you from this class, as you're abusing your bodies over break, is three things: the heart is the body's strongest muscle, that the brain has more cells in it than our galaxy has stars, and that the body is 72% water. So wherever you go over vacation, don't get too dehydrated.".

The main character during her teen years struggles a lot with her life. She passes through some very difficult situations, perhaps one falling in love with an older boy, who she has sex with. She becomes offended by the word slut and her best friend asks her if she is so offended by the term why does she does what she does? She explains that it was a choice made out of love, from her heart. She becomes pregnant and loses the baby, and ends up leaving the boy. I guess, she questions a lot. She struggles with believing the heart is the strongest muscle in the body, because hers hurts so badly from her loses. Also, her best friend if highly religious and a very good friend to her and she questions why she deserves such a good person in her life.

The main character during her adult life, raises her daughter with the professor she seen speak in her youth. She is a teacher, and she's trying to get through the 15 year anniversary of the school shooting. As she does many of the things through her daily life, she remembers bits and pieces of her past. Her daughter is becoming difficult. She finds her husband with another woman. She decides to visit the scene of the shooting with flowers.

At the end of the film, it ties the whole thing together. As she is walking to school as a teenager, she stops at a graveyard for children who haven't made it, there she stops at the post for her unborn child, Emma. This is the name of the child she has as an adult. As she is walking into the school as an adult, a student asks if she is a survivor and she should sit at a specific spot. She exclaims no and walks into the school to place flowers around. They replay the shooting scene, and the shooter asks them who will die. Originally Maureen said he should shoot her. As the scene passes, the main character tells him to shoot her, replaying the quote, "Conscience is the voice of God in the nature and heart of man". The idea here is that the teenage life was what she had already experienced, and the adult life would have been what she imagined would have been so. Right before the shooter killed her. That's what she experienced. The idea is caught with the title, being that people say when you die, your life flashes before your eyes.

Thought the movie was put together very well, especially for an independent film. Definite recommendation. I cried, a lot, which is not common with me and movies. I guess, it was just easy to make it real with the fact that this is what could really happen in one of these tragedies.

Florentine Chicken-Artichoke Bake

(From The Potluck Cookbook

7 cups dried bow tie pasta

1/4 cup of butter

2/3 cup chopped onion

4 eggs

2 1/2 cups milk

2 tsp dried Italian seasoning, crushed

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

4 cups chopped cooked chicken

4 cups of monterey jack cheese

2 14 oz can of artichoke hearts, drained and quartered

2 10oz packages of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and well drained.

1 cup oil packed dried tomatoes, drained and chopped.

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

1 cup soft bread crumbs

1 tsp paprika

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain; set aside. Meanwhile, in a large skillet melt one half of the butter over medium heat. Add onion; cook and stir about 5 minutes or until tender. Remove from heat, set aside.
2. In a VERY LARGE BOWL, whisk together milk, eggs, and italian seasoning. Stir in chicken, monterey jack cheese, artichoke hearts, spinach, and tomatoes, and half of the Parmesan cheese. Toss with the cooked pasta and cooked onion mixture. Divide mixture into two 3 quart rectangular backing dishes. Cover with foil.
3. Bake for 20 minutes, meanwhile in a small saucepan, melt the remaining butter; Remove from heat. Stir in remaining Parmesan cheese, bread crumbs, and paprika. Sprinkle crumb mixture over pasta. Bake, uncovered, for 10 minutes more or until heated through.

My Two Cents:

1. THIS RECIPE IS FOR A POTLUCK SO FOR A SMALLER FAMILY PLEASE CUT IT IN HALF!!!
2. I used fresh baby spinach that was starting to get soggy and wilty in my fridge, you can microwave it and it will be just like the frozen stuff.
   
3. Bring a big appetite for this, it's delicious and really filling.

Overactive Imagination?

I cannot watch graphic movies that include crime/murder/horror. People can judge me all they want for it, but I can't help it. First of all I don't like thinking about horrible things happening to people. I can recognize that it exists, but that doesn't mean I want to think about it. If I do think about it, I will be consistently paranoid.

Recently, the my Dad has been on a crime kick about true stories of people who have been murdered. I cook and this stuff is on tv, so as much as I try, no matter what I am hearing about it and thinking about it...

So then, when people stop talking to me because they are annoyed or whatever... I automatically assume they have been murdered now! What the heck, weirdo! I am just letting my imagination take over, and assume some freaky stuff. I wish I wasn't like this, because it is seriously a bit much.

So, after a short talk with a friend, she talked me out of worrying so much... and told me to avoid these shows. Looks like I'll be listening to my ipod tonight while cooking.

Taco Pasta

(As From "The Potluck Cookbook")

4 oz dried penne

1 lb uncooked ground chicken

1/2 cup chopped onion

1 1/2 cups of water

1 1.25 oz envelope of taco seasoning mix

1 11oz can of whole kernel corn with sweet peppers (I found this in the store as "mexicorn")

1 cup of sliced pitted ripe olives

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 cup salsa

1 4oz can of diced green chile peppers, drained

4 cups of shredded lettuce

tomatoes cut into thin wedges

Optional: Tortilla Chips & Sour Cream

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit. Cook Pasta according to directions, drain and set aside.
2. Meanwhile in a large skillet cook ground chicken and onion, until meat is brown; drain the fat. Return to the skillet. Stir in the water and taco seasoning mix. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered, for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in the cooked pasta, corn, olives, half of the shredded cheese, salsa, and chile peppers.
3. Transfer mixture to a lightly greased 3-quart rectangular casserole. Bake, covered, about 45 minutes or until heated through. Remove from the oven; sprinkle with remaining cheese.
4. Serve with lettuce, tomato wedges, and if desired tortilla chips and sour cream.

My Two Cents:

1. Very easy to make!
2. Learned a new tip from my sister today, if you ever have a very potent onion, soak it in ice cold water for about 30 minutes, this helps get rid of that overpowering (and gross) taste.
   
3. I used more cheese, because I am a cheese addict.
   
4. The original recipe is actually double all the ingredients (it is for a potluck where you would want to make a lot) The amount I made would be good for a large family probably about 6 or 8 servings. If you have a smaller family, cut it in half again! YUMMY!
5. The book said this is a "kid favorite". Since I am a child stuck in an adults body, I can confirm that this is true so if you have some kid appetites to feed, hook them up with this!!