Food Porn: Shrimp and Orzo with Grape Tomatoes and Romano Cheese

Bobo, the ENTIRE time I said, "tom ARE to" instead of "tom MAY to".

Shrimp and Orzo with Cherry Tomatos and Romano Cheese

This is a Cooking Light Recipe and it ROCKS!

Things I changed:
1. Used grape tomatoes, like them better
2. Added some white wine (about 1/2 the glass I was drinking) to deglaze (aren't I fancy) just before putting shrimp back in the pan.

REALLY good and you can probably use rice too that was already cooked and leftover. Just omit the cooking orzo part. Also, an SB white wine is quite good with it...

also before...and also after. :)

Finally! The Scorpion

In this post I mentioned that my Mom had a confrontation with a scorpion. This information had been relayed to me via my brother, T, when he let me know that she was alive and well in Honduras (you see, she forgot to text me to let me know). Anyway, this is it. It doesn't look big on first glance BUT, that leaf, is the size of my hand, fingers spread out. It was outside the house that she stays in on the orphanage property when she is there.

Orphanage, you say? Yes, my mom spends about 2 weeks every quarter in Honduras volunteering at an orphanage/school. She is a retired teacher. When this opportunity came up, she took an immersion course in Spanish in Guatemala and although her accent is that of an American learning Spanish, she is doing really well with it.

Some of the stories about the kids there will break your heart. One kid they nick named machete because his mother beat him with one, and not the flat side. One keeps running back to the streets because he can't adjust to any other life. Also, there are 'police' that round up street children cart them out of the cities and either kill them or just abandon them.

P and I joke that since we don't have kids my Mom is going get off the plane someday with a child for us to adopt. Someday I hope to go with my Mom for one of her trips down there (P can speak Spanish pretty fluently and I can understand it very well, it's the speaking part I have trouble with). For now, she'll just have to tell us about her adventures.

I Want to Be Naked

...or why I need my own office.

I am a mess today. Besides the poison ivy, I am itchy all over (no it's not PI) from probably cheap moisturiser or the new body pouf I bought yesterday. I am going insane though. I seriously want to strip naked and roll around on the carpet like a dog. There are images of it going through my brain and I think...last night while I was scratching...I almost had an orgasm. I am TOTALLY not kidding. I am wearing a silk sweater and khaki (how do you spell that flippin' word anyway?) pants and the appropriate undergarments. All I want to do is rip them of and S C R A T C H!

Also, after I blogged about my nice evening, last night, I gouged the hee haw out of my finger (seriously, there is a hole) putting the new fixtures on the freshly painted (dried) kitchen drawers. I am usually quite handy but this was a freak accident. I am not going to be able to paint my nails for awhile.

I need wine when I get home.

UPDATE: I think my office mate just saw the title of this post. Eek

Life is Good...

I am at my computer, glass of Red Truck wine, steaks marinating, potatoes cut and ready for roasting (olive oil, garlic, pepper and salt), zucchini ready to be diced.
It was a beautiful day today. I was in my office for most of it but I am going to try to take advantage of the evening part of the day while I can.
Today was the kind of busy day where I don't get to check in on my bloggy friends and that was HARD. I have a ton of work to do for this event in July so I have a feeling there will be more days like this. I hate missing reading them though because I love the fact that there are people out there that are over emotional about books and movies, that are extremely scarcastic to their husbands and often look at the world like I do. It seemed rare to me till I started blogging. Now I know there are other crazies out there like me. :) Off to enjoy the great outdoors.

PS. The poison ivy, still brutal I officially give up on the back garden. Bring in a landscaper if I have to sell my blood for it.

Secret is in the Sauce

Great new way to see other great bloggers and get intro-ed to their site. IT was put together by a couple of my fav bloggers. Check it out.

How to Irritate Me...

Decide to hold a conversation with a long lost friend IN THE PARKING SPACE I AM VERY OBVIOUSLY ABOUT TO PULL INTO.



asshats

All Good Things Must Come to...

a new beginning.

We were at a bbq last night mainly for my football team but there were other suspects there. The bbq was at my friend K's house...well not really HER house. She has been a Nanny for the same family for 10 years and this year her charge is going off to college. The house K has been living in is a gorgeous place downtown. It has been the site for MANY classic parties since I have known her. Now though, since her charge is off to college and K just finished up her Masters, things they are a changin'. As we walked out of the house last night, she said, "This very well might be the last time you see this place." It was kind of sad but at the same time, b/c is really is time for K to move on, it was ok.

Right now, K is not sure where she is moving to, what her next job will be (she was also a teacher) and even if she'll stay in Philly. As scary as that sounds, she sounds totally fine with it. It's like she was ready for the change and what comes, comes.

The thing is, she did ask me if I was going to take over the football team. I said no. With that, I think it is truly over. I don't mean just football. Playing held some of us together, otherwise our paths would not have crossed. So this final bbq meant that there are proabably some people that I will not see again for a very long time or maybe ever. It made me realize that for the past 8 years, this is where most of my/our friendships/social gatherings stemmed. Where do we go from here? It feels a little like being single and knowing you are not going to go to bars to meet people worth dating. Many people in our situation have kids, so that is how you end up meeting people. That is not the case with us. We'll actually have to rely on our own personalities (egads) to break the ice.

So, how do a couple 35 year old DINK's go about making new friends? This is a change that we have seen coming for awhile but never really thought about much. Looks like we better or P and I will have to start spending more quality time together, egads indeed.