Life Update, again...

Well, work has been really fun, but exhausting also. School is as busy as ever, but I'm doing pretty well. Having a lighter class load has really made this semester run a lot more smoothly. Looking forward to being done, though. Emotionally, I'm doing better, still a bit of a roller-coaster sometimes, but finding a more even keel. Still hard, but life goes on. At the moment, I'm just trying to keep myself open and enjoy life without pressure and worries. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I have days where I definitely feel more defensive and that bothers me, because I can feel myself wanting to hide away, but I'm getting better at dealing with those days, and they're becoming less frequent. Thanksgiving this year is going to be a bit sad, its just my parents, grandmother and I. I'm going to miss all the family gatherings, whether its tomorrow down in Petaluma, or Saturday at my parents'. Oh well, that's how it goes sometimes.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving, and I'll write more later.

Winter Plans

Things I want to do this Winter...

Snow-camping
Downhill Skiing
X-Country Skiing
Snowshoeing
Snowball fight
Hot Springs when its snowing (An outdoor hot tub will suffice in a pinch)
Tour of San Francisco
Visit So. Cal
Learn to speak a foreign language
Visit David Parsons
Host a Regency Dinner
Go on a horse-drawn sleigh
Go ice skating on a lake



Any other suggestions? I'm interested in trying new things, so if there is something unique that you love, let me know!

Life update

So, I'm officially employed again. This is good news, am still looking for a second job, but I suppose that for the moment, I'm very happy to have this one. I am considering a rather drastic change in my life, we'll see how that plays out, but... meh. Decisions will come in their own time and I'm not going to rush this one.

Have now been told by four people that I absolutely shouldn't join the Navy, well, the military in general, Navy they're more okay, sort of. Its interesting to see people's reactions, it reveals a lot about their feelings and thoughts when they respond to that possibility.

Had a rather flattering exchange at JC Penney's after my interview this afternoon (which, incidentally, is where I'll be working). Got offered a job on the spot, which was good, though I'm pretty sure they're doing that with a lot of people, but its good that they were willing to offer the position right away. Looking forward to that, should be a lot of fun, or at least, will be a productive and meaningful addition to my life, and further fuel my new obsession with clothes.

Speaking of clothes, I found the suit I want. It is oh-so-amazing, and not nearly as expensive as I'd have thought from looking at it. I will have this. Maybe not soon, but eventually. Or I'll make one myself... Might not be cheaper or easier.

So... Now I'm going to go try to sleep. More job-hunting tomorrow, some homework to finish up, and if I get enough done during the day, games in the evening. I'm kind of thinking about passing on that at the moment, but I'll probably end up going when the time rolls around for it tomorrow. Had fun tonight. Finally saw Transformers II, we were going to watch Le Mans, because I absolutely adore Steve McQueen, if I weren't straight, I'd find someone like him. But we couldn't find John's copy of it, so settled on Transformers instead. Also played a large game of Settlers, which I didn't realize I was dominating in quite the way that I was until after the game was over. We were playing with the River addition, which means you play to 14 Victory Points. When I announced that I'd won, thinking I'd reached 14, I realized that, in fact, I was at 16, because I forgot about one of my cities quietly hiding in the corner of the map.

So it was, all in all, a good day and a fun night. Looking forward to tomorrow and all the opportunity it holds.

And while I'd like to write something about a certain someone, I'm not sure that I should right now, so, you know who you are, and I'm thinking about you, and missing you.

Roast Lamb with Potatoes and Garlic

Certainly has been a busy cooking day for me! Made scones for breakfast (sadly not from scratch, though they were amazingly tasty), cooked a delicious soup for lunch, and finally made the dinner I'd promised my parents. I love how the recipe turned out, it was everything I'd hoped it would be. My mom even commented that it might have been the best lamb that she'd ever had. While she may have been using a touch of hyperbole, both my parents went back for seconds of the lamb and the potatoes, so I guess that says something. Personally, I loved it, and would definitely recommend this recipe to anyone interested in trying out lamb. This was the first time that I'd cooked lamb, and if I can pull this off, anyone can do it!

So, on to the recipe, as always, notes and comments follow afterwards.

1 whole leg of lamb (~4 1/2 lbs)
4 large garlic cloves, quartered lengthwise
2-3 heads of garlic, halved
2 lbs potatoes, peeled and quartered lengthwise
Juice from 1 lemon
2 cups hot water
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp chopped fresh thyme
Salt & Black Pepper
A few sprigs of fresh thyme to garnish.

Preheat the oven to 425F. Place the lamb in a large roasting pan. Make several incisions in the meat, pressing the point of a sharp knife deep into the flesh, and insert one or two quartered pieces of peeled garlic in each.

Arrange the quartered potatoes and halved heads of garlic around the meat. Pour over the lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil. Add half the water to the dish, pouring it around the lamb and not on to it. Sprinkle over half the oregano and thyme. Season with salt and pepper.

Roast the lamb for 15 minutes at 425F, then reduce the oven temperature to 375F. Roast for 1 hour, basting occasionally.

After an hour, turn the meat over so that the other side browns as well, sprinkle over the rest of the herbs and seasoning, and turn the potatoes over gently. Add the remaining hot water to the pan and cook for another 25-30 minutes, basting occasionally with the pan juices.

Remove from oven and cover the meat with a clean dish towel and rest it for 10 minutes before serving. The cloves of garlic can be popped out of their skins and eaten with the meat, they make a deliciously creamy accompaniment.

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I followed this fairly closely, and it came out great. I did go the lazy route and leave the skins on the potatoes, which I liked, and will probably do in the future. My parents suggested adding carrots to the potatoes, and I think that would be a good selection. Definitely use the roasted garlic as a spread on meat if you like garlic a lot. It was fantastic. The tips of the roast were a touch dry, but only just. The rest of the meat was fantastically moist and tender, and I'm really not sure there is anything I could have done to prevent that one very, very minor problem. I also used far more liberal amounts of the herbs than the recipe called for, largely because whenever I buy a pack of herbs like fresh thyme, I invariably don't get back to use the rest before it starts to mold, so use as much as you have, and it'll come out great. Likewise, I probably doubled or tripled the amount of oregano it called for, but I also applied it to the potatoes.

So, now I'm going to go collapse into a food coma for a few hours and let this most excellent meal digest. Leftovers tomorrow are going to be fantastic.

Broccoli Cheddar Soup

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For lunch this afternoon, I decided to try a broccoli cheddar soup, the finished product is pictured to the right. I was fairly happy with how it came out, but I'm definitely going to try a few things differently next time. So here's the recipe, and as before, my notes are added at the end...

1/4 c butter
1 onion, diced
2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp ground white pepper
16 oz frozen chopped broccoli (I used fresh instead)
1 qt chicken broth
1/2 c all-purpose flour
1 1/2 c whole milk
8 oz sharp cheddar
Salt, to taste

Melt butter over medium heat in a stockpot. Cook onion in butter until softened. Add garlic and pepper; cook for 1 minute then stir in broccoli, and stir in chicken broth. Bring to a boil and simmer until broccoli is tender, 10-15 minutes.
Meanwhile, whisk flour into milk until dissolved. Stir into soup stirring frequently until thickened. Reduce heat, and stir in cheese until melted and heated through.
Season with salt to taste.

My notes:
I followed the basic instructions fairly closely, my main departure being that I used fresh broccoli instead of frozen. This ended up leading to the broccoli being a little more firm than I expected, but certainly not bad, just not the intent. Next time, I would probably cook it partially beforehand to soften it up. The consistency was fairly good, I considered putting the entire batch in a blender and seeing what that did to it, but chose not to. I liked having the extra chunks of broccoli in there.
Definitely get some -good- cheese for something like this. The sharper and cleaner taste of an upper-tier sharp cheddar would have gone a long way towards improving this. Still, it was very good, and I'll definitely be trying it again, as well as other similar recipes.
Enjoy! As always, if you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment. Or requests of recipes to try or write about... I'm always open to experimenting!