This leads me to 'commitment'. (what I need to do is commit to do my friggin laundry tomorrow) GAWD I hate laundry. I think I would like it much more if I had my own washer and dryer, or my own laundry service to do it for me. le sigh. If I won the lottery, I would definitely pay someone to do my laundry. Ha!
Commitment is like a mental diving board.....I REALLY REALLY high one.
Chicken Peanut Kabobs
1.Soak about20 6-inch bamboo or wooden skewers in water for 15 minutes.
You Will Need
10 slices thick sliced bacon
4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
Sauce
(If you are in a huge time crunch, just use the pre-made spicy Thai peanut sauce from your grocery store,otherwise:
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup apple juice or water
1/4 tsp. (for you spicy food sissy's) or 1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes.
2.Cut bacon into three inch slices, or cut each bacon slice into three pieces. Cook in a large skillet until partially cooked, but not crisp.
3. Cut chicken breast halves into 1/2 strips, then cut each strip into three pieces. Alternately thread 3 chicken pieces and 2 cooked bacon pieces onto each skewer: place in boiler pan.
4. Brush about half of reserved sauce evenly over kabobs. Broil kabobs 6 inches from the heat for 3 to 4 minutes. Brush remaining sauce over kabobs: turn them over and broils for an additional 3 to 4 minutes until chicken is no longer pink. Serve with reserved sauce.
This recipe will make about twenty kabobs, but I like to double it because people LOVE these! You can make a meal out of it, by putting the kabobs over rice and drizzling with remaining sauce. YUMS!
Jen's Dirty Martini Dip
What you'll need:
1 block of cream cheese.
13 green olives with pimentos (makes it oh so very festive)
1/3 cup olive juice (form the olive jar)
1. In a medium sized bowl combine the cream cheese and olive juice until smooth.
2. Dice olives and add to the cream cheese mixture. Mix well and then serve!
I like to serve this with celery (my favorite), pita chips or baguette slices!
Nutcracker Braid
What You'll Need:
1/3 chopped pecans or hazelnuts (I use both though)
1/2 cup finely chopped dried cranberries (I like to use the orange flavored ones).
1/4 cup raisins
1/8 tbs cinnamon
1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed.
1/3 c apricot preserves.
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 tsp. vanilla
2 tbs milk
1/4 cup
chopped pecans
1. Heat oven to 375. Spray large cookie sheet with nonstick cooking spray. In a small bowl, combine 1/3 cup pecans/ hazelnuts, the dates, raisins, sugar and combines; mix well.
2. Unfold puff pastry; place on sprayed cookie sheet. With rolling pin, roll to form 14 x 10 inch rectangle. Spread preserves in 4 inch wide lengthwise down the center of the pastry. Sprinkle fruit and nut mixture over preserves.
3. With pizza slicer, scissors, or knife, make cuts 1 inch apart on long sides of pastry to within 1/2 inch of filling. Fold strips at an angle across filling mixture, overlapping ends and alternating from side to side.
4. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheet; place on serving tray/plate. Cool for 15 minutes.
5. In a small bowl, blend powdered sugar, vanilla and enough milk for desired drizzling consistency. Drizzle over cooled braid. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup pecans.
Reasons why I am A+ excited.....
- SO my first week in my new position= A+
- My grade on my first Accounting homework= A+ (that's Mrs. Smarty Pants to you!
- Money situation looking= A+ (Thanks to the Holiday hours and new promotion
- Fun things planned for the upcoming week= A+ (Oh. My. Gawd. The pictures that will follow)
- Finally cleared the air with somebody that I consider very special to me.= A+
- Going to my first 'Bad Christmas Sweater' party (It's actually Policeman's Birthday Party)= A+
Speaking of that...is it bad that I actually LIKE my 'Bad Christmas Sweater"? It is like a 1x and is huge on me, which means it goes off the shoulder a bit (which I LOVE). It is obnoxiously sparkly and has jingle bells lighted goodness. I will take my video camera. TRUST.
- Tomorrow is payday!= A+
- Just signed up to run the Lincoln Half Marathon on my Birthday with my girlie's from work= A+
- Cierra goes to her dad's for Christmas which makes me sad...BUT I am treating myself (and my liver) to some nights out with my girls and my gays= A+
- Teaching my Grandma how to text; yesterday I sent her a picture of a shirtless firefighter, it entertains me to NO end.= A+
- Saturday is my nieces 5th Birthday party, which means another humongous family gathering! Love.= A+
- I F I N A L L Y found a tattoo artist here and am sooo excited to start in the New Year= A+
- My favorite 'alligator shoes' ornament.
=A+
- What I ate for lunch today after signing up for the half-marathon in May!= A+ (see below)
She is the one who used to tell me to put some lipstick on because I looked dead, yet in the same sentence would say that I was the most beautiful dead-looking girl she'd ever seen. lol My hair is naturally very dark, I have blue eyes and when I don't see the sun, I turned vampire white. lol My Grandma B is also the one who will walk into ANYWHERE and hit on all her 'boyfriends' before she leaves. She's soooo funny!
I digress....
I worked a bit late today, when I got to the house she and Cierra were sitting down finishing up some homework. Here they are, oblivious to me and my Blackberry camera. (Yes my Grandma only has half a finger. She calls it her gimp finger. She lost it working in a machine shop, back in the day when all the boys were fighting overseas)
When my Grandma looked up, she said to me, "Oh Jenny! You look tired! I am a horrible host these days! Go downstairs, in the freezer, on the third shelf, on the left-hand side and bring one of those pizza's up here." I did what I was told.
She had this great brushed copper bowl on the counter. I asked her where she got it, because it was the coolest thing I've seen in a long time. My Gram started to laugh...., "Jen! That's no bowl...it's a lamp shade! You can eat your salad out of it if you want to though, I cleaned it up today."
So I did. (why not?) Now I can say I ate salad out of a lamp shade- totally bloggable; don't hate! lol Before long I had a Totino's pizza, and surprisingly good instant coffee in front of me. This is the life.....seriously!
Good times!
Tonight when I was feelin a little sad, I just started thinking of all the good things in my life. I also started humming a Christmas song (I love Christmas). Then, all of a sudden, I realized that I am one lucky and blessed person. Knowing that, doesn't change the things that were making my heart heavy, but it DID put things in perspective.
Sometimes that is all we need is a little bit of perspective!
Last night was a hell of a night. After working all day, and going to my night (accounting) class, my rear passenger-side tire locked up in the middle of an intersection. NOT GOOD.
Left me stranded, but not for too long. My policeman just happened to be in the neighborhood and took me to my mom and sister who met us not too far from where my car died. I say 'my policeman', but that is the farthest from the truth. Last night was the first time I'd seen him in two weeks! I just wanted to cry. I didn't though.
Today was better. Today was my first day as the solo Manager at the store and we WERE SLAMMED the WHOLE time! I ended up staying a bit late and left feeling accomplished. I am so grateful for this promotion and job (that I love), never in my life have I been SO grateful for a job as I am today!
My car is better too. Turned out that the only thing wrong was a frozen emergency brake. Ended up only (basically) paying for some de-icer. THANK GOD for that one! I was really worried about an auto-mechanics bill right before Christmas!
My sister bought me groceries tonight, 'just because', so I could just go straight home and cook myself dinner. The best part was the bag of red chili's. It took me a couple of hours, but I made my red chili tonight, from scratch, so I could have proper (cold weather) New Mexican food. yums!
Although I am impulsive by nature, I don't do well when plans are changed or altered. You can see when I am agrovated. Even so, I am an even-keel person. I don't fly off the handle, ever. I find that when I am in a relationship, whatever that relationship may be (family, friends, co-workers and lovers alike); I just don't do the silence thing well.
"Sticks and stones are hard on bones,
Words can sting like anything
But silence breaks the heart."
I'm pretty sure that I should come with a warning label that says, "Do not keep in extreme silence, or contents will explode!"
SO, for the sake of blogging, I am penning my top 'Someday" comments of late!
1) Someday I will have a kitchen big enough to open the refrigerator AND the oven at the same time.
2) Someday, I won't be in school anymore and I'll have more hobby-time than homework-time!
3) Someday, Christmas won't be such a stressful season and Cierra will actually get what she asks for for Christmas!
4) Someday, I will invest in a vehicle that I love and will drive it till it dies!
5) Someday, I will zipline in someplace fantastic!
6) Someday, I will buy groceries more than a week in advance (again)!
Somedays, I just really want someday to hurry up already! Can't you see (someday), that I'm bustin my ass here? :)
In spite of all the hard work, I am still trying like mad not to take myself too seriously. I have my Cierra, we are a family and we are happy! She knows I am working hard and makes little sacrafices that most kids don't have to make because of it.
I know it will all come together, I dream of that day! I know it will be mine! When that day comes, I will have new 'somedays'! (That's sort-of the nature of the beast)!
You see things; and you say "Why?" But I dream things that never were; and I say "Why not?"
* George Bernard Shaw
ALMOST
The last transaction was $9.26, she wanted to pay cash and didn't have a quarter. This was the point where she proceeded to send her husband out to the car to find a quarter!
Bless!
I turned the oven off and headed back to take a shower. When I got out of the shower, something smelled like it was burning, not good!
I went in the kitchen and opened the oven to find a FIRE! Apparently, instead of turning the oven to off, I accidentally turned the oven to BROIL. I have no storage space for my pots and pans, so I keep them stacked neatly in my oven. As a result of this smokin match, my good pan with the oven-proof silicone handle was ablaze!
GAWD.
I proceeded to grab my pot holders, pull it out of the oven (without touching the fire, of course) and threw it into the soap-water filled sink! It sizzled and smoked. Fire overted- yeeesss!
THAT was the point, however, my damn fire alarm started going off. I ran through the house, opened all my windows and used my magazines to fan the smoke. Meanwhile, my neighbor was knocking on my door and my guinea pigs were screaming rape because they didn't know what was going on. (Keep in mind, I had JUST gotten out of the shower and was only wearing a towel). Fml
