yummy winter pasta dish

i know i'm such a streaky poster lately and i literally just put something up, but i also wanted to get one more recipe up before Christmas, so i'd maybe better do it while i'm in the mood. my mom sent this one home with me from thanksgiving and it was delicious! so good and one of those much-appreciated dishes that is also yummy as leftovers.

i actually added mushrooms to the recipe below, which turned out to be a bit much for me in the protein department. BUT, that means that a better way to go would be to consider skipping the sausage and using mushrooms instead. so, if you're a vegetarian, everything is kosher and if you're an omnivore, you're getting two recipes for the price of one. it doesn't get much better than this.

also, rather than dealing with extra sausage links, i bought two spicy italian sausages from the meat department, removed the casing (i know. . . definitely in the top ten for grossest jobs ever), and then cut the 1/2" slices from what was left. it was delicious i don't have a ton of leftover sausage links taking up space in my tiny, tiny freezer.

Sausage and Veggies with Linguine Pasta
1/2 lb. linguine
1 package (12 oz) sausage links, cut into 1/2" thick slices
1-3 bell peppers (assorted colors make it pretty), coarsely chopped
1-2 tomatoes, chopped
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

1. Cook pasta according to package directions.

2. Cook sausage (or mushrooms) and peppers in skillet on medium/high heat for 4-6 minutes (until sausage/mushrooms are browned) and peppers are starting to tender.

3. Stir in tomatoes and cover. Simmer 5-6 minutes until tomatoes are soft.

4. Add drained pasta and mix well.

5. Add in cheese and toss until all ingredients are mixed.

(note: I use tongs for steps 4 & 5 - as with recipes like this - but if you have a better way of getting everything mixed together, let me know!)

Let me know if you try it!!

wisco-winter wonderland

i had started a whole post in my head about my concern regarding people's extremist attitudes lately (really - all guns or no guns? we speak as though those are our only options?) and the shocking lack of informed rhetoric on important hotbutton topics (if your google works like my google, when you type in "gun control options," you don't see one reputable source). however, i don't think that this blog is ready for such serious topics yet. nor am i ready to be quite that vulnerable on the internet, so i'll keep it light.

and by light, i mean 19.5" deep.

did you guys see that winter got here just in time to celebrate its official first day? this was the first snowstorm that matt and i weathered together (pun TOTALLY intended)! matt was in madison december 14-21. he had a temp of 103 degrees just before he left, so we kept things pretty low key in hopes of helping him recover before we head to jamaica. but we did make sure to have our date night and get the needed groceries before we bunkered down on wednesday to watch the storm roll in.

and in it came.

it never seemed to be snowing all that much, but suddenly things were covered in a way that they hadn't been since last winter. we didn't notice until we left the house today, but my neighborhood is decorated with snowpeople of all shapes and sizes. clearly not everyone adopted our "stay inside unless you really HAVE to go out" strategy of coping with the storm. it kind of reminds me of that crazy rainstorm over the summer. i thought i was miserable getting so wet until i realized that there were bunches of people playing outside and having fun. i know that i hate being cold. and i know that shoveling snow and scraping windows gets really old. but i do like these little reminders that make you stop and wonder, "why do i complain so much about this again?" because when someone is building a snowperson with charcoal eyes, an oversized scarf, and a flower pot for a hat, it sort of suggests that things aren't quite as dire as they may seem! :)

plus, a fresh coat of snow makes things look really fresh and pretty.

that being said, i was feeling really, REALLY pouty about finding my car looking like this (see photo on right) when it was time to take matt to the milwaukee airport today. the only saving grace for me was knowing that i was lucky to have matt around. because if he'd taken the bus (as per our plan b), i would've been digging this thing out by myself in the morning.

i'm waiting for one last holiday package to arrive before i head back to iowa (the first one that i ordered, naturally) and then matt and i will resume our efforts to keep the airlines in business. i'm just in for a trip to ohio and the honeymoon adventure. matt is really putting on his frequent flier cap for january.

hopefully we will have enough settled on the job market front so that we can update you on that next month. there is a lot to share.

happy holidays!

three updates in 24 hours? best. blogger. ever.

an update that includes wedding photos, as promised. although i can't always figure out how to post the pictures with her logo in them, i want to point out that all of the photos below were taken by my incredibly talented cousin, Melissa. she gave us a great deal on wedding photos and was so flexible, responsive to e-mail, open to ideas, and just overall easy to work with, i can't even explain it. if you're in the northern iowa/southern minnesota area, you should totally check her out at her website, Michaelis Photography. tell her that i sent you. it won't earn you any special deals, but at least you'll have something to talk about ;) and tell her that she did a great job with these. because she totally did!

a new topic, potentially

i *think* that i've just figured out how to copy and paste my opinions on the latest books that i've read into my blog. my "reviews" tend to be pretty broad, but at least give you a general sense of what i've been reading and may be helpful if you're just looking for something to get your hands on (especially if you live close enough to just borrow my copy).

point of interest: i buy most of my books from www.half.com. i like having copies of books that i've read (particularly the ones that i enjoy) and for most of the stuff that i purchase, i'm virtually paying only for shipping. there are inexpensive used copies of textbooks on here, too, FYI.


Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

i am a big fan of the way that jon krakauer writes, so this read was pretty great for me. it's a story about two brothers from a sect of morman fundamentalism that were involved in the murder of a mother and her child in the 1990s. the book flip-flops back and forth between the history of the FLDS faith (and its many branches), the nature of fundamentalism in general, and the story of the killers' crime and trials. not necessarily a must read, but a good one if you're looking for well-researched, easy-to-follow, and interesting nonfiction.


View all my reviews

Christmasy catchup

want to hear something exciting? earlier this month, my blog got 80 views. 80! in one day! i wish that i had said something funny or intelligent. . .or anything at all. obviously, my travel schedule has meant that there has been very little blogging lately. so, whoever those people were pretty much just got to see old postings and photos. sorry, new friends. i hope you come back. and i hope you leave comments :)

i feel a little bit more like i can breathe now. in the last five weeks, i've been in 11 states and 2 countries. i've been on 19 planes.  i've found a dry cleaner. i know exactly how many days of parking i can pay for until taking a cab is less expensive. i ate duck for the first time. i broke in my new passport. i read three novels (now that we're in de-icing season, you can really spend forever on the ground without access to electronics). i revised a manuscript. i have a newfound appreciation for the importance of amoxicillin. i got some pretty pictures. i got a haircut. i got a dry cleaner. i got some pretty weird pictures (to be shared later). AND i somehow finished my Christmas shopping.

so far my favorite sign from traveling

there is an equally long list of things that i haven't done in the past 43 days. not the least of which is keeping up my running. i think my last good run was at the end of october. i'm supposed to have a "running meeting" with the program director early monday morning. so, we'll see how that goes. i'm not even sure that i have the appropriate winter running attire (actually, there are many things i need before this, but look at how smart this cap is. why have i been trying to fit my ponytail UNDER my cap for all of these years?!). the goal is to be back in shape enough to do a 10K training program in the spring. so, if you're lucky, you'll read me whining about that in just a few short months! :)

belated share from Lacey's wedding

now i'm just hoping to settle in for a few weeks at least. i, of course, have a "to do" list assembled for the rest of the month. and then i suppose i have to get back on a plane and go on my honeymoon. you know. . .hard times.

i am checking off a few things weekend, i hope (including maybe posting some more of the beautiful wedding photos that melissa took). however tonight i'm settled in with an unpacked suitcase, my first quart of apple cider for the season, and either friends reruns or some basketball games (my fantasy team is currently about even [18-20-2] and i'm playing against matt this week. go, my team!) i can't tell you how long i've been waiting for a low-key night like this one. hope everyone else gets a chance to relax this weekend, too.

travel, wedding, travel, travel

i'm making a quick update on what feels more like a 3-day layover in madison rather than time at home. i have two interviews down, two to go, and three "outstanding" phone interviews that i haven't heard back from. i'm trying to keep most of the details off of the interweb just given that you never know who might end up with access to your facebook page, blog, etc. yet, given that that is pretty much all i'm doing lately, that leaves me with little else to comment on.

i am not going to share site-specific stories yet for the aforementioned reasons, but i will share this pic that becca snapped for matt and me at the hilliard-starr wedding last weekend. we had a great time in texas and even put in some QT with the schlegel-hicks clan. it had been far too long since we had seen cole. i am sad to report that i missed what was probably the cutest photo-op of the weekend, which was cole making friends with the flower girl and both of them playing in the dirt at the end of the aisle. however, i did get this video during playtime after some texas bbq. to really get the adorableness, you have to listen for cole's "wheeeeeee" at the top of the slide.

the most perplexing moment came yesterday, i think, when i was waiting in line for the drugs that will supposedly subdue my sinus infection in time for me to fly out again tomorrow (keep fingers crossed about that, please). the target pharmacy was pretty busy and i was waiting in a pool of several people who had gathered. at some point, an older woman approached the counter and got into what turned into a fairly heated argument with the pharmacist. the short of it was that the woman had a prescription for eye drops that was supposed to last her for a month and a half, but was only lasting her about a month. she wanted to get two months worth of drops at a time, which her insurance company wouldn't allow. she was pretty fiesty about it, because she had apparently received two months at a time before (and claimed that is what her doctor wanted) and she wanted the pharmacist to just fix the insurance claims to say that she was picking up her drops at two different dates. the pharmacist kept explaining that they wouldn't do this as it was essentially filing a fraudulent claim. to the pharmacist's credit, she stayed pretty cool throughout the conversation; however, the eye-drop woman kept getting more and more upset, more and more confrontational, and started to claim (and probably believe) that this was all happening because the pharmacy had "screwed up" at some point.

you could tell that all of us who were waiting were getting uncomfortable, feeling sorry for the pharmacist, and were pretty clear that no matter how this eye-drop woman argued or how many insults were hurled, things were not going to work out in her favor. at one point, one of the other women waiting beside me interjected, "lady, you just need to move on."

"stay out of my business," replied eye-drops.

"i don't care about your business," responded the other customer, "but i do care how you treat this woman and the way you're acting is [expletive]."

the two breifly exchanged words and eye-drops eventually huffed away. truthfully, the customer didn't need to resort to her own nasty language, but in her defense, we'd been standing around watching the altercation for close to 25 minutes. and while i wasn't thrilled with her methods, i found myself admiring this other customer for standing up for the pharmacist. and further found myself wondering why i hadn't done something myself. we all saw the same thing unfolding - why had only one of us interjected on behalf of the poor pharmacist, who was holding her own but by the end was simply enduring the customer's insults? it was almost embarrassing, really. i still don't know what it was that kept me from saying anything, but it has made me think a lot over the last day about the extent to which we're really willing to put ourselves on the line to defend someone else from an attack. i'm not sure if other people have found themselves in similar situations. i would like to think that i'd do my part to step forward to help someone who is not necessarily in a position to help themselves. but i didn't. and so now i find myself how to moving forward with resolve to be - not aggressive - but more willing to at least step forward in defense of others. it's just not totally clear to me what my own "tipping point" is as far as being willing and able to step in and lend a hand. maybe this is something other people already know about themselves? or maybe we all continue to struggle with similar things.

anyway, the next few days are another travelpalooza, followed by thanksgiving, followed by more travels. if you're counting, we're heading out for our honeymoon in 47 days. now THAT is a trip that i'm looking forward to!

for the masses: a recipe and a question

what does this even mean?
i feel like this is not the first time that i've been stumped by such a scenario. the perfectly-spaced parallel lines say, "park here. you're welcome anywhere there is an open space." yet, i've also been trained to recognize the yellow curb as strictly prohibiting the presence of my car any any other. (seriously, i ended up with 100% in driver's ed - - you can trust me on this). so, i ask you, what the heck?

please stop sending me mixed messages, neighborhood gas stations! you're hurting my brain. and you make look dumb as i drive really, really slowly through gas station parking lots trying to figure out where i am (and am not) supposed to park.

okay, end tangent.
how about something a gazillion times easier than that?

i realize that some people have instant anxiety about recipes that contain a cream of soup. i get it. it comes out of the can as a a glob that holds its own shape. it doesn't smell like food. and it's not good made as a soup on its own (on this i am also a self-proclaimed expert, as saint mary's served me cream of mushroom soup after my back surgery). however, it's coming on winter here and where i'm from winter is casserole season (affectionally called "hot dishes" if you're from minnesota and "bakes" if you're from pennsylvania. are there more names like this?) and casseroles/hot dishes/bakes almost always contain cream-ofs. so, they don't scare me. and now that i know that i'm supposed to be eating more salt in my diet, i don't even spring for the low sodium selections.

but i can guarantee you that this cream-of-including recipe is delicious. it takes almost no time to assemble, it never turns out wrong, and it always tastes yummy. i got it and about 7,000 taste tests from my mom. bon apetit!

Chicken & Asparagus Casserole

Ingredients:
3/4 pound asparagus spears (12-15)
1 1/2 cup cubed cooked chicken
2 tablespoons parmesan cheese
1 can cream of asparagus soup
2 tablespoons bread crumbs
1/3 cup milk

Directions:
1. Trim, cook, and drain asparagus (boiled or steamed, i've done it both ways and they're both fantastic).

2. In a 9" pan, arrange asparagus and chicken.

3. Combine soup and milk.

4. Pour soup and milk mixture into pan over asparagus and chicken. Top with cheese and bread crumbs.

5. Bake at 450 degrees for 20 minutes or until bubbling.

You can serve over rice, potatoes, noodles, or toast, but it's totally delicious just as is. For real.