Chef Boy R Mawmaw

After working on another exam question all morning, I set that aside and went to the kitchen, where I've been most of the afternoon. Here's why:

I have been a cooking/baking fool. I made this fabulicious soup for supper ... a slightly modified version of the Pioneer Womans Corn and Cheese Chowder. I omitted the bacon and the orange pepper. I added a can of diced tomatoes. The rest was the same.

This is my bowl of chopped onions and a red pepper and a yellow pepper. Sauteed those a few minutes in some butter. Added 2 bags of frozen corn. Sprinkled a little flour over it and added a big box of chicken stock. Let that simmer a few and then added 2 cups half and half, 1 cup Monterey Jack, and 1 cup Pepper Jack cheese. Oh my word!

And THAT is the finished product. Still waiting for The Pap to get home, but I HAD to taste it. No, I didn't eat the whole bowl ... yet.

I signed up to take pastries to school tomorrow for brunch. Bill ordered apricot danish. Here's the process:

Made this easy-as-pie dough ... melt 1 stick butter, 8 oz. cream cheese, 1 tsp. salt, and 1/2 c. sugar. While that is heating combine some yeast and 1/2 cup warm water until it begins to proof (bubble). Add 2 beaten eggs. Alternately add the melted mixture with 4 cups bread flour. Knead and let rise.

OK, so now I divided the dough that had been rising into 4 parts. Here's part one all rolled out into a rectangle ... or some resemblance thereof.

Then you spread this cream cheese mixture (2 pkgs. cream cheese, 3/4 c. sugar, 1 egg, and 1 tsp. vanilla) and spread some fruit down the middle. Per Bill's request, this is apricot, which I made by running one small can of apricots through the food processor and adding one small can of apricot filling. Simple. Or you can use a can of your favorite pie filling ... I like cherry. Kelly's favorite is apple and I sprinkle a little cinnamon over the apples.

Here they are! Just cover 'em and let 'em rise for a while. Then pop them in a 350 degree oven for about 20-30 minutes or until browned. When they've cooled a bit, drizzle with your favorite glaze. I use powdered sugar, milk, and a smidgen of almond flavoring.

These two are going to school with me tomorrow. The other two are staying home. Come on over, and I'll put on the coffee pot!

Who Am I Kidding?

OK, so I lied. Question one was 7 pages, and I stupidly thought the second one would be much shorter. It is a FULL 6 pages. Another line or two and it would bump to 7.

Done for today. In the process of making danish and going to start chopping an onion and some peppers for the soup. Pictures to follow later!

Date Night!

Last night The Pap and I went to Texas Roadhouse for supper. It's a chain, but very good. For some reason I was starving all day yesterday, and after only a cup of chicken noodle soup for lunch, I was ready to put on the feed bag. Here's what we had:

Steak and shrimp. Oh my word in heaven, that skewer of shrimp was fabulicious! The steak, baked potato, and salad were good, but the shrimp far surpassed the rest of the dinner.

Today I'm back to answering the take-home exam we got yesterday and working on question 2. I'm prolly 2/3rds of the way through it, and it won't be nearly as long as the first one. May or may not tackle question 3 'cause I have some other things I need to do.

We've having brunch tomorrow morning at class, and I signed up for pastry. Guess I'll make Bill's favorite apricot cream cheese danish. Only I discovered a while ago I forgot to buy sour cream at the store. That's not a staple around here, so off to the store in a little while. I've also decided I want to make the Pioneer Woman's corn chowder for supper and need the ingredients for that. So sooner or later I'm gonna have to shower, get dressed (yes, it is 10 a.m. and I'm still in my pjs), and go to the store.

Life is good at the Gregory house. Very good

Time Flies

I must be incredibly slow ... or thorough. Slow is prolly more accurate.  I sat down to start working on question one of our take-home exam.

Four hours and 7 pages later, I finished. FOUR hours ... did you get that? We are allotted 4.5 hours for comps. How in the world can I extensively answer 6 questions when it took me half a day to answer one?

On top of that, Bill has sent us four groups of study questions from various professors. I have my work cut out for me. Another reason to be thankful for retirement. I don't know how I could do this and work too. One of my colleagues told me this week he is going to take 2 weeks' vacation to prepare. Smart man.

In the meantime, I have a hot date with The Pap tonight ... dinner and grocery shopping.  I know ... grocery shopping is one of the least romantic things in the world, but at least it is time together AND someone to carry in all the groceries!

Exam Time

Today Jason gave us our take-home exam for the Intro to the Judicial System class. Four discussion questions. Actually, 2 cases, 1 question about various areas of the court process, and a question about lawyers. Lovely. Due next Saturday.

I've only read through the first case. Obviously it is a civil court case and involves whether or not a man signed a noncompete clause. That term isn't used when the case was presented, but that's what it is. Haven't read the other stuff yet. Hopefully it won't be too tough. He also told us that something similar to this would be what he'd have on comps, should we choose to answer his question. With my notes, it shouldn't be too bad. Without them? I have never worked in the court system. Don't know if I could remember all this or not. I have something like 15 pages of typed notes. Single spaced. Uh huh.

But FIRST ... I have to move around some laundry and finish reading the paper. Priorities, you know.

Morale Deflaters and Boosters

A rather large number (25 at last count) of my former coworkers lost their jobs today. Downsizing, deletions, reorganization ... whatever you want to call it. All I know there are a lot of hurting people there today ... including those left behind with their jobs in tact.

I am brokenhearted for them. And every day I am more and more thankful that I retired. Tonight a very perceptive church member asked me, "Doesn't management realize the word on the street is that this company will chew you up and spit you out?" Bottom line is: They don't care.

Now for the booster! Tonight my friend and partner in crime Annie were coming down the stairs after bell practice. She was moaning and groaning with each step. She's had more knee surgeries than I have fingers and thumbs. Seriously. Needs knee replacement but won't do it.

As we reached the bottom of the stairs and headed toward the choir room I said, "This getting old is the pits." Mark, another choir member who has only been at our church a couple of years at the most, said, "I'm with you." He's much younger, and I rolled my eyes and said, "Just wait until you're my age." Mark said, "I'm closer than you think. You're under 50, aren't you?" I laughed and said, "No, I'm much closer to 60. I'm 57 for a few more months." I could see the look of astonishment on his face. "Well, I never would have guessed that."

Give that boy a Girl Scout cookie!

Ants

Years ago we had carpenter ants ... ginormous black ants ... nested under our house. Had no clue until we went to have siding placed on our house. Woodpeckers had absolutely torn up a spot on the front of the house trying to peck their way through to the carpenter ants. Had to have all that treated and we've had no more trouble with carpenter ants.

Last year sometime we had a very minor problem with those tiny black ants hanging out in my bathroom. Not like a trail of them ... just a few random ones. The "bug man" said they were scouts out looking for water. He sprayed and that was that.

About a week ago I noticed those pesky little things in my bathroom again. Just two or three most of the time. But I hate it. We are not dirty people. There's no food upstairs. I don't know what they are after.

Then the weirdest thing of all ... lately I've seen them in the bonus room. Again, not a trail of them, just a few random ones here and there. And they are on my laptop! That's the ONLY place I see them. Are they after the heat or just really smart ants? If I put it on the floor, I can just about guarantee the next time I pick it up there will be ants on and in it. If I leave it in my recliner, it rarely has ants. Yes, we eat up here sometimes. But we don't make a mess, and while this room is a cluttered mess (again), it is clean.

So our bug man called a little while ago and it is time for our quarterly treatment. Here's hoping he takes care of the ant problem.