Rice with Garlic and Greens

I tried a new recipe yesterday, with - I believe - good success. We like a side of rice or noodles or whatever with dinner, but the "boxes o' stuff" are becoming more problematic. I am not happy with the sodium, MSG, sugar, etc. content, and Nephew's soy allergy is becoming more pronounced (which is why I now supply three households with bread on a weekly/monthly basis!). I would rather buy, cook, and eat "whole foods" rather than prepared ones, for the most part anyway.

So I was very excited to come across the recipe below, which specifically mentioned the freeze-ability factor in the instructions. I made it yesterday and ended up with 7 quart-sized freezer Ziplocs-full. It smelled FANTASTIC when it was all put together, and I plan on actually eating a serving later this week with a park chop dinner I have planned.

I got this recipe from the blog $5 Dinners; you can see the original (with many photos) here.

Here's the recipe (note - Wombat and other anti-garlic people could probably reduce or eliminate the garlic aspect if desired):

Rice with Garlic and Greens

Ingredients
• 2 cups of brown rice
• 3 cups of white rice
• 4 cups raw spinach (chopped)
• 2 cups fresh parsley (chopped)
• Couple fresh basil leaves (chopped)
• 7 garlic cloves (crushed)
• Salt/Pepper

Directions

1. In large saucepan or Dutch oven, bring 12 cups of water to boil. Add 2 cups of brown rice and return to boil. Reduce heat to medium and cover. Let cook for about 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, add the 3 cups of white rice. Turn the heat back up and bring water back to boil. Reduce heat to medium and cover again. Let simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring often.
2. Chop spinach, parsley and basil. Add it to the cooked rice and stir through.
3. Add crushed garlic cloves and season with salt and pepper to taste.
4. Serve a portion of the rice for a meal. Let remaining rice cool while you eat. Then add it to freezer baggies or plastic containers and freeze in batches.

The (in)Famous Pizza

We have not purchased pizza from a pizza-purveyor in months, nor any variety of frozen pizza. This is because I have discovered that I can EASILY make pizza at home with ingredients we always have on hand, using tools we already own (no rushing out to buy a fancy, expensive pizza stone!), for a FRACTION of the cost. And, our homemade pizza is WAAAAAAAAAAAAY better than anything Domino's or Pizza Hut or Tony's or Frecshetta can come up with.

The procedure and recipes are below. I make a TON of sauce at once and freeze it, and generally keep up the dough-making all day (using the bread machine to mix/knead and rise). The dough freezes just fine - see the end of the post for info on how I do this.

HOMEMADE PIZZA

Pizza Sauce

INGREDIENTS (this is enough sauce for 2 – 4 pizzas – adjust as needed):

• 2 (15 ounce) cans tomato sauce
• 2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon ground oregano
• 1 tablespoon dried basil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons dried minced garlic
• 2 teaspoons ground paprika

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a medium bowl, Mix together tomato sauce and tomato paste until smooth. Stir in spices.
2. Cook on stove until warm; stir frequently.
3. I prepare and heat the sauce earlier in the day, and then refrigerate it until I need it. Then I warm it up again. You can make, heat, and use it immediately.

Pizza Dough

INGREDIENTS (for one pizza crust – adjust as needed):

• ¾ cup warm water
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 2 tablespoons butter (melted or very soft)
• 2½ cups flour
• 1 tablespoon yeast

1. Mix water, butter, and sugar in a mixing bowl.
2. Add part of the flour and stir.
3. Add the rest of the flour and the yeast, and stir into a dough.
4. Knead 6-8 minutes, or until dough is smooth and elastic.
5. Set dough in bowl and grease the top. Cover with a towel and set in a warm place to rise for about 45 minutes.
6. After the dough has risen the first time, punch down and knead until air bubbles are removed.
   

**You can skip the rising and put your freshly-made dough into the pizza pan.


MAKING THE PIZZAS:

1. Liberally butter the pizza pan. Press dough into pan. Lift ½ of the crust and sprinkle cornmeal underneath; repeat.
2. Sprinkle ½ teaspoon salt on top of crust, then spoon about 1 cup of pizza sauce over crust. Add cheese and other toppings as desired.
3. Bake in 400-degree oven on lower rack for 10 minutes; rotate pizza (for even baking) and back for another 10 minutes.

Freezing:

Both left-over sauce and left-over dough can be frozen for a later date. I put one cup of sauce into a freezer Ziploc and flatten it out for freezing – the flat packages stack very nicely. 1 cup of sauce is just about right for a large pizza, and plenty + extra for medium/small pizzas. When we’re making more than one I just take however many flat-packs out of the freezer that I’ll need for the number and size of the pizzas.

The dough can also be stuffed into a freezer Ziploc and somewhat flattened. It seems to work fine once defrosted – let it warm up a little before you start trying to flip/roll it for the pizza pan (stone-cold dough is hard to work with).

More Organizational Self-Mocking

I just completed a very satisfying organizational project: The two freezers in the garage. Neither needed to be purged, but my old hand-written inventory had pretty much run its course and the many new additions needed to be tracked. Also, both freezers were in need of some re-organization. So I spent an easy - and happy - hour going through everything, organizing items, and making new inventory sheets (one for the upright freezer and one for the chest freezer).

I replaced my old, random, hand-written lists with a nifty form I downloaded from www.thekitchn.com called the "leftovers log" (click and that'll take you to the specific post with the downloadable form). The first page is for a fridge/freezer combo (which I will use for the firdge/freezer in the house), and the second page is a freezer-only list. It's not anything fancy or particularly necessary, but just kind of nice (and motivating for a weirdo like me).

I, of course, had to put my lists on a clipboard, label the clipboard, and attach a Sharpie with a piece of yarn! And then I hung the clipboard right by the door into the house (also featured in the above photo are my can-crusher, garage door opener, and roll of shop towels).

I feel so very satisfied!

Telling Stories on Myself

Here are a couple of little stories I'll tell on myself, just so you can giggle at me:

My former teaching partner and good friend from OakTown sent me a message on FaceBook saying that she and another teacher friend of ours had just returned from a professional development conference in a distant city. At this training they apparently met MY "twin." Here were the lines of evidence presented:

1. The twin ALWAYS had TWO dietCokes on her table at all times.
2. Jack-in-the-Box was involved (presumably as the purveyor of the dietCoke).
3. The twin "did all her work on her computer and it was all color-coded."
4. The twin's personality was apparently "dead-on" MINE.

And, obviously, the twin is also an educator. Clearly my two buddies must miss me ENORMOUSLY if they're out there bonding with my twin!!!

When I told Wombat this story, her comment was "and did the twin have everything labeled, as well?" Okay, yes, I do love my labeling machines (that's right, plural - one at home and one at work) quite a bit, but... well, thanks Mom for adding to the mockery!

And then there's what will no doubt become known as The Great Lemon Pie Incident. You can read all about it on Wombat's blog, But Not For Lunch.

Really, I'm laughing WITH myself, not AT myself! But... does it matter? :)

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Italian Cheese Bread as a Reward for Hard Work

Tonight Igor and the kids joined us for spaghetti and cheese bread. It was a well-earned dinner, at least for Nephew and me, as we spent most of the day in the kitchen.

Nephew helped by prepping some un-used past-its-prime produce to go into the compost bin and also by turning 5 lbs of carrots, almost 2 lbs of celery, and two big bunches of radishes into fresh veggie munchie snax (he's a good chopper). I might add that he helped with gardening/yardwork, picked up dog poop outside, and dusted our whole living room and dining room!

I fixed french toast for breakfast; ran six big onions through the food processor and bagged them for freezing; hand-shredded 2 lbs of cheese; chopped up 1/2 of the 15 lb watermelon (the other half is at Chez Igor); prepared, cooked, and freezer-prepped the huge batch of rice with garlic and greens (mentioned in the previous post; recipe still to come); sub-divded and freezer-prepped the meat purchases from this morning; cooked a big batch of spaghetti sauce; and cleaned out the fridge. WHEW! And finally, at the end, made delicious Italian Cheese Bread to go with our spaghetti dinner.

We all love this stuff, and it's SUPER easy to make - also, way cheaper and yummier than the "fast 'n' easy" breads you buy at the store (whether in cans from the dairy case or creepy, gooey loaves from the bread aisle), AND it's made from real food with no chemicals or HFCS.

The recipe is below - it is NOT original; I got it from a wonderful website which is referenced at the end. Sorry, I didn't take a photo tonight and can't seem to find an older one in my iPhoto library. Maybe next time.

Italian Cheese Bread

Ingredients

Bread:
• 2½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 TBSP yeast
• 1 cup warm water (120 – 130F)
• 1 TBSP vegetable/canola/olive oil

Topping:
• ¼ cup prepared Italian salad dressing
• 1/8 tsp salt
• ¼ tsp garlic powder
• ¼ tsp ground oregano
• ¼ tsp dried thyme
• Dash pepper
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese – this can be part shredded cheddar, for a slightly different (and VERY GOOD) effect. Use enough cheese to cover all your dough (a little more than 1 cup if needed).
• Shredded Parmesan cheese – anywhere from 1 TBSP to ¼ cup – sprinkle over the top of the mozzarella (and cheddar, if used) until you have the amount you want.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450F.
2. In a bowl, combine the flour, salt, sugar, and yeast.
3. Add the oil to the 1 cup warm water (NOT TOO HOT or you will kill the yeast); combine this with dry mixture.
4. Add additional flour if needed to form a soft dough - stir it around with a big spoon until it starts to come together.
5. Turn out onto a floured surface; knead for a couple of minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic.
6. Place dough in a greased bowl, making sure to turn in order to grease the top.
7. Cover the bowl with a light kitchen towel and set it in a warmish place to rise for about 20 minutes.
8. Once the dough has risen, punch down lightly and turn onto a greased cookie sheet – 12 inch round or medium-sized rectangle.
9. Roll and/or pat the dough to fit the pan.
10. Brush with salad dressing.
11. Combine the seasonings and sprinkle over the salad dressing.
12. Sprinkle with cheeses.
13. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown.
14. Slice (a pizza cutting wheel works great) and serve warm - mmmmmmmmmm!

Very slightly modified from www.tammysrecipes.com/italian_cheese_bread

Some Grocery Gloating

In The Village we have a supermarket that is part of a small chain here in the southern part of our state. It's a nice store, good service, not outrageous prices, and very handy to have close by. DarlingMan LOVES their deli sandwhiches and salads - his food of choice if we are getting "take-out." However, since my paycheck buys the bulk of the groceries, and I only get it once per month, we generally do a major Costco/Walmart trip right around payday, and only purchase perishable necessities during the rest of the month. Now that NewWalmart is right by our house, I don't find myself going to the Village Store very often any more (which is kind of sad, and of course has economic consequences from a larger perspective).

However, this week's mailbox ad from Village Store was verrrrrrry enticing - a veritable extravaganza of produce! So at around 10 this morning GrandmaT, Mrs. Igor, Niece, and I loaded into the SilverBullet and headed to The Village. Mrs. Igor and GrandmaT filled up one cart with stuff for both our house and Chez Igor, which I piloted a second cart. Here's what I got in my load, with the total at the end:

• 3 lbs of "WackyMac" vegetable pasta
• 2 lbs store brand white rice
• 4 boneless pork loin chops
• A good-sized London Broil, which will be sub-divided into 3 meal-size pieces
  
• 2 16-slice packages American cheese (gotta have my cheese-n-crackers!)
  
• 5.16 lbs of bananas
• 1.80 lbs of celery
• 1 bunch of cilantro
• 1 bunch of parsley
• 1 bunch of fresh basil leaves
• 2 bunches of radishes
• 4 LARGE red bell peppers
• 15 lbs of russet potatoes
• A 15.88 lb seedless watermelon
• 2 bags pre-washed fancy romaine salad mix
• 1 bag pre-washed spinich leaves

And that all cost... a whopping $39.97 (I did have $2.50 worth of coupons).

GrandmaT added 5 lbs of carrots, about 5 lbs of red and green grapes, another couple pounds of bananas, a 2 lb. block of cheddar cheese, and a giant box of ice cream sandwiches to our haul.

The rice, spinich, basil, and parsley (plus some garlic) were turned into a fantastic looking-and-smelling make-ahead-for-the-freezer dish which is cooling on the counter right now. I'll post a picture and the recipe a little later.

WOW! I'm feeling pretty frugally satisfied right now!

San Diego Chicken thinking about flying the coop

San Diego Chicken thinking about flying the coop

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Power to the People

Way to go, Iranian populace!

The power of social media must now be recognized, even in those parts of the world where speaking to power = risking your life!

(If this doesn't make any sense to you, go watch/read some world news.)

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A nice Saturday Meme

In the spirit of trying to post more often, I looked for a meme to use today. Thanks to tenseteacher for providing one!

1. Name one person who made you smile today:
I think doggies count as people - at least they do around here - so it's BeagleDog.

2. What were you doing at 8am this morning?
Drifting dozily with a DVRed Gilmore Girls playing in the background.

3. What were you doing 45 minutes ago?
Snoozing way late for the first time in FOREVER!

4. What is your favorite candy bar?
Snickers, especially frozen. Although Mr. and Mrs. Igor's description last night of peeling the chocolate skin off of them gave me nightmarish images of Snickers as victims of Hannibal Lechter!

5. Have you ever been to a strip club?
That would be no.

6. What was the last thing you had to drink?
Fresca, regular flavor. Moving on to the black cherry version in a little while.

7. What was the last thing you ate?
Cheese-n-crackers. In bed, no less!

8. The last sporting event you watched?
Stanley Cup hockey finals, last night. Rah rah Penguins!

9. Do you go to church every Sunday?
Only when Mr. Mamie (aka DarlingMan) has the urge.

10. Do you prefer Chinese food over pizza?
Not at all, especially because we make the rockin'est homemade pizza right here!

11. What are you doing tomorrow?
Enjoying being at home before another round of teaching, travel, meetings, and conferences cranks up.

12. What do you think of when you hear Australia?
That I would REALLY love to visit there!

13. Biggest annoyance right now?
That the ceiling fan is rattling.

14. Last song listened to?
Something on the Sirius Satellite Radio '80s station while driving the less-than-one-mile between Chez Igor and home last night.

15. Do you have a maid service clean your house?
Have you BEEN in my house?! You would not need to ask that question if you had.

16. Are you jealous of anyone?
Of some people, in a general way, if only because life appears easier and less complicated for them - though I know that in reality it's probably not the case.

17. Is anyone jealous of you?
Seems quite unlikely.

18. What do you usually do during the day?
A whole lotta stuff related to education, administration, and bureaucracy - most of it via technology. Yesterday it was prepping to teach a class to teachers, which sadly involved two hours of photocopying. I know for a fact that Monday will be the last time I present in that manner (with millions of paper handouts) - the way we conducted last week's conference presentations proved to me that it CAN all be handled with technology. Someone just has to lead the charge for change, and in my corner of the world, it's gonna be ME!

19. Do you hate anyone that you know right now?
Kind of. And yes, I should be a better person.

20. Are you thinking about someone right now?
Absolutely.

Stick Geeks

Make your Stick Figure Family at FreeFlashToys.com

Where have I been?

It has been brought to my attention that I have neglected my blog in recent weeks.

Really? Huh.

Well, it's been a VERY busy period in my life, so let me just catch you up:

The program of which I am director has, in the last two months, wrapped up one school year with 50 teacher participants and 11 instructional coaches; reviewed and selected 28 new teacher participants (from a significantly larger pool of applicants); initiated the search/hiring processes for additional instructional coaches; launched the beta version of our public website; continued intense negotiations with "Major University" (no names until everything's got signatures!) to provide the first-ever completely online subject endorsement program for our state's teachers; and produced several instructional videos.

I just taught my first-ever course as an an adjunct instructor for Utah State University, which was a BOATLOAD of work but very rewarding. I plan to do it again. I've also recently done some mini-workshops on Gifted Education in various forums, and have another one coming up on Monday.

I'm writing this from the campus of Utah State, where a colleague and I are presenting a "Mini-Strand" on technology integration in gifted education (75 minutes a day for three days!) at the Intermountain Conference on Gifted Education. I'll be revamping this to create a shorter version to present at the Utah Rural Schools Association conference in July, the Utah Association for Gifted Children conference in January 2010, and possibly the Utah Coalition for Educational Technology conference in February 2010. I like presenting at conferences, and have been doing so for a few years now - it's quite energizing, and it brings educators together over larger issues and themes, breaking the isolation that often comes with out profession.

I might mention that it's FREEZING here in Logan, UT; rain and thunderstorms all week. I am missing the desert heat mightily!

In other news:

• The BeagleDog hurt his back again a couple of months ago, but is better now.
• Thanks to GrandmaT we've got a nice garden going with tomatoes, bell peppers, onions, green beans, zucchini, corn, pumpkins, carrots, radishes, and probably some other stuff that I can't remember. We don't have a whole lot of any one item, as we're experimenting, but so far things are growing happily.
• I got the tires on the Rav rotated and balanced for the first time in two years; next up is a brake job for the Pathfinder.
• My FaceBook FarmTown farm has been neglected as of late... fallow fields and unruly trees. I really MUST do something about this situation.
• I met up with a friend whom I have not seen since 10th grade (that would be 24 years ago) last night. She now lives here in Logan, and we reconnected on faceBook. IT WAS SOOOOOO FUN!!!
  

Okay, I gotta go now, but I'll try to keep up the blog better so Wombat will be happy.