Pear and Gorgonzola Salad

Clearly I'm not good at sticking to this whole recipe a week routine.  I blame it on the frequent urge to order out, usually spurred by excessive studying.  With finals only a month away, I expect this to happen a lot.  I resorted to some pretty extreme methods of finding food during last semester's finals period, including eating a decorative gingerbread house for dinner one night and an entire bag of frozen edamame another.  It wasn't pretty.

Anyway, earlier this week Jack wasn't feeling well so I decided to be nice and grab him some soup on the way home.  I got carried away in the grocery store and ended up buying a ton of produce, including the stuff to make this salad.  It's one of Jack's favorites and perfect for warm weather.  Not that the weather was warm this week, but a girl can dream.  Here's the super easy recipe.

Pear and Gorgonzola Salad
Any measurements I give (and there are hardly any) are for two big serving sizes, so adjust accordingly depending on how many people you're serving.

 Salad Ingredients
-Arugula
-Crumbled gorgonzola cheese
-A pear
-Chopped walnuts

Dressing Ingredients
-Extra virgin olive oil
-White wine vinegar
-Dijon mustard (I love Grey Poupon or any kind that has that seedy texture)
-Brown sugar (you can also use maple syrup or honey, but I didn't have either)
-Salt and pepper

1) Make the dressing first.  One of the things I love about cooking is messing around with things and seeing how they taste, so I rarely measure.  I'll try to estimate how much of each I used, but always taste it and play around with adding more of one ingredient depending on what you like.

Add about one and a half tablespoons olive oil, one tablespoon white wine vinegar, one tablespoon Dijon mustard, and a few spoonfuls of brown sugar to a small bowl and whisk together.  Add salt and pepper (using grinders like I have, about 12-15 twists of salt and 8-10 twists of pepper).  TASTE FIRST and add more of any ingredients as you like.

2) Wash the arugula and put into bowls (or one big bowl if you're being fancy)

3) Peel the pear and slice in thin pieces. You can cut the slices in halves or quarters depending on how big you want the pieces in the salad.

4) Mix the pear pieces, gorgonzola crumbles, and walnuts into the arugula.

5) Add the dressing and toss together.

Super easy and super good.  It's especially good with big pieces of crusty Italian bread with butter.

How To: Live the Dream

Find a beach.  Sit on it.  

Easy enough.

Wear bright nail polish and even brighter bathing suits.

I must have looked like a crazy person when I went through security because I brought six different nail polish colors with me.  That's right, SIX.  As if I would even take the time to repaint my nails once I got here.  I was so torn between which color to choose before I left that I painted each of my nails a different color to decide.  Just one of the common problems of living the dream.

Jump in the air and have someone take a picture.  Or be artsy and take a picture of your shadow on the sand.

Drink something exotic, like raspberry beer.

 A delicious beach drink that packs quite a punch if you aren't careful.  Mix four Coronas, 1/2 a cup of vodka, and a container of frozen raspberry lemonade from concentrate and serve over ice with fresh raspberries.  Extra points if you have chilled Mason jars to drink out of, because I got this drink idea when I was living in Charlotte.  The only thing more southern is a gin bucket.  This is my (late) Sunday night recipe for this week.

Note the bright yellow French manicure.

Follow a strict diet of fresh seafood and anything fried.  

Or both, if it's available (I'm a sucker for a good fried cod).  Tonight we're pairing raw oysters with March Madness games, and hopefully I'll get a crack at some salmon before I leave.  Also, eat outside when possible.

Lunch at the Tiki Bar at the pool.  Fried green beans every time.

Use the hand signal for another round at least once (twirl finger above head enthusiastically)

This is too much fun to not do it at least once in your life.

Read.  Read a lot.  

Read enough to give yourself an embarrassing sunglasses tan or one of those weird back tan from propping yourself up on your stomach.  This vacation I read all three Hunger Games books in two days.  Last time I was down here it was a great book called "The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake," by Aimee Bender.  Super strange and beautifully written... I definitely recommend it.

Watch a sunrise or a sunset, take a picture, and share it on social media to make other people jealous.  Works like a charm.

Sunrise on the Atlantic is BEAUTIFUL

Change your flight to either arrive earlier or leave later.

My Nana's friend pretended to be Kristin and managed to get her and Ryan an extra two days by explaining to the Orbitz customer service rep that her "grandma" was 85 years old and would only be able to drive them to the airport two days later during the daylight hours.  Midway through the negotiations she covered the phone, turned to Kristin, and said, "You're kind of a bitch on the phone!"  Completely worth it.

Ignore the clock and any e-mails that seem stressful/important.

Meaning anything that my Con Law professor has sent is still unread.  And meaning that my clock looks like this:

Vacation sun dial

Sunday Night Dinner: Balsamic Rosemary Chicken

In the spirit of a new tradition (and being a copycat), I'm sharing my newest recipe.  Because I'm going to Florida in a week and have to stand in a bikini next to my itty bitty mother and sister, I'm South Beach dieting before I go.  I got this recipe off the South Beach website and made a couple of changes based on procrastination (you're supposed to marinade overnight), then added my own side.

***

The Main Dish: Balsamic Rosemary Chicken

Ingredients
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
3-4 sprigs (is that what they're called?) of fresh rosemary
3 cloves of garlic, minced
Salt and pepper
Extra virgin olive oil
Balsamic vinegar

Info: takes about 30-40 minutes to prep and cook, serves 4

Directions
1) Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

2) Take the leaves off of the rosemary and mince them.  Combine them in a bowl with the garlic and about 1/4 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper

3) Put the chicken breasts in an oven safe dish (I used a round Pyrex dish) and drizzle with olive oil.  I used about a tablespoon, but you can use more then that.  Rub the rosemary mixture into the chicken.

4) Put the chicken in the oven.  After 10 minutes, flip the breasts over (and add a little butter to the pan if you're butter crazy like me).  Leave them in for another 12-17 minutes.  I think our oven takes a little longer than most, so I was at the higher end of the time.

5) Once it's out, drizzle balsamic vinegar over top of the chicken and serve it up!  Spoon up the remaining juice in the dish to put on the chicken.

The Side: Green Beans

Ingredients
Green beans
White onion
Extra virgin olive oil
Parmesan cheese (I like shaved Parm)

Directions
1) Clean and trim green beans.  Chop the onion.

2) I steamed the green beans, but you could boil them too.  While the green beans are cooking, soften the onions in a skillet with a little olive oil.  Once both are done, toss the onions and green beans together with a little salt and pepper.

3) Add parmesan cheese and they're ready to go!  I added a little of the balsamic sauce from the chicken to these, but green beans are good with red wine vinegar too.

***

Unfortunately, I didn't do a great job photographing the step by step, so I only have the final product.  I also am a rookie as far as measuring goes... I generally do a lot of eyeballing.

Jack's verdict: "Mmmmm."
He also added about three times as much parmesan after the picture was taken.

Overall, a great meal (and South Beach friendly!).  The rosemary is awesome, and the chicken came out really juicy and delicious.

If I Had a Million Dollars...

...I'd become a food blogger.  It used to be a craft expert, but I think I'd get bored with the few crafting skills I do have pretty quickly (probably limited to writing in interesting letters and Mod Podging).  But after my friend Whitney started a blog with a Sunday night recipe feature, I wanted to start the same thing.  Call me a copycat.  For the moment, that's what I'm doing.  But I love food and I love cooking and if I want my mom to continue paying my cellphone bill, I need to start producing more than one blog every four months.  That or go back to teaching so I can talk about the hilarious things that children do.

Am I starting right now?  No, but be on the look out for some insight into my culinary skillfulness in the near future.

The Hiatus

Blogging isn't quite as soothing when you spend every waking minute reading and writing and trying to avoid even the most stylistic use of the passive voice.  It also doesn't serve much of a purpose when the only funny stories you have either revolve around nerdy law school jokes or the fact that one of your professors wears a fanny pack and uses Lindsay Lohan in all of his hypotheticals on land grants and the law of estates.  I'd like to go back to giving it a try anyway.

It feels like the first time seeing an ex after a break-up, months later with an awkward amount of space to fill with small talk and half-interested nods.  I have't seen this "compose" page of my blog in so long that I almost wasn't sure I was in the right space.  But I'm back, and I guess that's all that matters.

So what small talk do I start with? I guess I could tell you what I've been doing for the past four months.

Read, study, writing assignments, repeat.

That actually sums up everything you need to know, at least about the law school part. 

What about my social life?

I spent last Saturday watching puppy shows on Animal Planet in
between frequent panic attacks about my moot court brief

I guess that picture works for that too.

Be on the lookout for more...

Making Sense

I'm sitting in a Panera with a blank computer screen up. Ten... twenty... thirty minutes have gone by since I opened my torts casebook. The playlist on my iPod looped four times before I noticed.

I can't make sense of the last month, and that lack of sense pervades into most of the things I try to do. I end up staring. Then shaking my head and getting back to work only to stare again. Some days that's all there is- blank-eyed stares. Other days it's not so bad.

That's the funny thing about grief. It's like having a leech on your back sucking out your energy, mostly without you knowing. Maybe you're fine, maybe you're just used to being drained. Then sometimes you laugh and you believe that you're finally alright again, only to be right back to where you started five minutes later. Like I said, I can't make sense of it.

Because I see things in black and white, I struggle with this. I just want to crawl into bed. I don't want to be in a gray area, in a kind of limbo where life is back to normal but it's not back to normal at all. I want every day to be the same, for better or worse, so I can figure out where I am. But it doesn't work like that.

You take one day at a time. One hour at a time, even. Like my dad says- do one thing at a time, and do it right. It's all you can do.

The Important Thing

What my sister and I read at Jon's services...

In times of seemingly insurmountable grief, we seek, more than anything, understanding. We look endlessly for answers. We ache to be “okay,” but we also fight it, never wanting to be “okay” with a loss so great that it shakes us to our very core.

When Jon was born, Sara and I jumped on our bed chanting, “We’re getting a brother! We’re getting a brother!” From that day on, our lives and the lives of those around us have never been the same. We all got a brother that day and we sit here now with hearts that are heavy and soaked with sorrow.

The love we have for Jon fills this room, along with the memories he has forever imprinted in our minds. We cannot find the words to express how overwhelming this feeling of love is, so we look to the words of another to explain.

From the children’s book by Margaret Wise Brown, The Important Book

The important thing about the rain is that it is wet. It falls out of the sky, and it sounds like rain, and makes things shiny, and it does not taste like anything, and is the color of air. But the important thing about the rain is that it is wet.

The important thing about snow is that it is white. It is cold, and light, and falls softly out of the sky. It is bright, and the shape of tiny stars and crystals. It is always cold. And it melts. But the important thing about snow is that it is white.

The important thing about the sky is that it is always there. It is true that it is blue, and high, and full of clouds, and made of air. But the important thing about the sky is that it is always there.

The important thing about you is that you are you. It is true that you were a baby, and you grew, and now you are a child, and you will grow into a man. But the important thing about you is that you are you.

Jon, Jean, Jan, Jake, JB, Jon-Jon, and Goobs-

It is true that you were once a baby, and you grew into a man. Your eyes were blue and you had the most beautiful smile we’ve ever seen.

You were a phenomenal athlete. You were in the goal when history was made, and were a national champion. But none of that came easily. Whether it was five-hour road trips for one-on-one lessons with the Goalie Man or 21 credit hours completed in one summer, you worked hard for everything you accomplished. You approached these accomplishments with a humility that very few people possess.

You were selfless and loyal and gave to others with compassion and without hesitation. You treated every friend like your best friend and the way you treated family is the way everyone should treat family.

You brought Sara and I pizza at 3’o’clock in the morning, installed “surround sound” in the back room for Pa, and somehow managed to get Mom wherever she was going safely even when you were “Textin’ and drivin’, makin’ Ma mad!”

You were a neighbor, a friend, a teammate, a cousin, a brother, a son, and now, you are an angel. But the most important thing about you is that you are you, and you will always be you to us.

We love you, and you will forever hold a special place in our hearts. You are watching over us all now, and there is no one we would rather have looking after and protecting us.