I wanted something really quick for dinner tonight since I’m supposed to be working on a paper and I had a lot of hazelnuts still left in the freezer from baking. I sort of threw everything together and it turned out well so I thought I’d share it with you all (instead of, you know, working on my paper )

Ingredients for hazelnut crusted chicken:
- 1 pkg. of thinly sliced chicken or chicken tenders
- 1/4 cup chopped hazelnuts
- 1/2 cup bread crumbs
(Note: I rarely measure my spices so just use as much spice as feels good)
- some basil
- some garlic salt
- some cayenne pepper
- salt and pepper to taste
- two eggs

Directions
- Heat oven to 375
- Grease a glass baking pan
- Scramble eggs in a bowl
- In another bowl, mix bread crumbs, hazelnuts, and spices (you can use a food processor to mix everything and chop the hazelnuts a little more finely)
- Dip chicken in egg
- Dip chicken in bread crumb mixture
- Place in baking pan
- Bake for 20-25 minutes or until chicken is golden brown

Ingredients for dipping sauce:
- Sriracha sauce
- Honey
(seriously, that’s all!)
- Mix one part Sriracha to one part honey. Adjust for taste.

(Note: Sriracha is a hot sauce also known as Rooster sauce. It can be found in either the international food section or in with the rest of the hot sauces at many grocery stores)

Enjoy!

What are some of your favorite fast and easy meals to cook?

When we first meet people, we see them in two dimensions. We see eye color and hair color; stature and how they carry themselves. Maybe we see something that alludes to who they are but we can rarely see past the exterior. It is only when you know a person that they began to become real or at least tangible. It’s a very basic image.

When you really know a person, they become three dimensional. You know their likes and dislikes. You know their personalities. You begin to know the small, intimate details of who they really are. You know their dreams and hopes. Their physical traits become second nature to you. You know what they are thinking and why they think that way. They become absolutely whole to you.

Time and absence have a way of turning the three dimensional back into the two dimensional. You are left with only your strongest memories of that person. They can be good or bad. There is too much to remember in this life that you begin to forget the small details and you’re left with just a very general impression. They almost become ghosts.

I find myself wondering sometimes if I’m remembering things correctly or if I have put my own spin on a few key facts (or fictions) that I remember. Perception carries a lot of weight.

One thing about writing that has always attracted me is that it allows you to capture right at the exact moment that you feel it. You can look back at what you wrote and perhaps the perception has changed at that point but you can at least grasp a bit of what you felt at that very moment. That transcendence is something else.

 

I was never the type of girl who planned her wedding out when she was little. I knew that I wanted to eventually get married someday to the man of my dreams (whenever it was that he came along). I just wanted to plan the details once I met that guy. About three years ago, I did meet that guy. Even once things got serious and I knew I wanted to marry him, I still wasn’t planning my wedding.

 One of my first thoughts after the Architect proposed to me and after I got over the initial shock and excitement and made what seemed like a thousand phone calls to friends and family was that “Oh, I guess I have to plan a wedding now. Eek!”

This isn’t to say that I haven’t had a blast planning our wedding. I really have enjoyed it but it hasn’t come without frustration. Most of this frustration has stemmed from the fact that vendors hear “wedding” and think “oh, now I can charge a bazillion dollars more.” It’s the dreaded Wedding Industrial Complex (WIC) and I’ve been fighting it and probably will fight it all the way to the altar.

Cake has been incredibly WIC-ified (very technical term). Cake just shouldn’t be that expensive especially for what I want.

All I was looking for was a pretty simple cake. I wanted a round tiered cake with buttercream icing. We’re decorating the cake with real flowers that we’re getting ourselves. Unfortunately simplicity does not seem to be something that many bakers keep in mind when it comes to price!

After many long hours of searching, we finally found someone with reasonably priced cakes. He supplies desserts for one of the restaurants in my hometown where we’re getting married. We met with him and talked about what we wanted to have done. We also picked out flavors (the top will be chocolate raspberry, the middle layer will be chocolate fudge, and the bottom will be vanilla). I’m so happy that we got that straightened out.

On top of getting the cake settled, I also found a florist and picked out all of my flowers. It feels good to accomplish this stuff!

How was your weekend?

I got this game from the ever lovely ZSA_MD :

1. I have come to realize that….. the past really is prologue. You can try to distance yourself from your past but it still is a big part of the overall story.

 

2. I am listening to…. birds chirping outside and the whirr of the washing machine and music (My Name is Jonas by Weezer right now).

 

3. I talk…. too much sometimes and not enough when I should.

 

4. My best friend…. is absolutely amazing and way too far away from me. She’s moving out of the lower 48 states

 

5. My first real kiss….. was in a mosh pit (for serious )

 

6. I love…. that I’m almost finished with school while meanwhile I have an amazing fiance who is instrumental in getting me through these next two weeks. He brought me Starbucks and doughnuts to start out the day. Right now, he’s out getting flowers to make our deck look pretty

 

7. I lost… nothing this week, which is impressive with as busy as I’ve been. I have a tendency to lose stuff when I’m busy.

 

8. I hate it when people… don’t make good on their promises.

 

9. Love is…. this quote: “I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
   I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
   so I love you because I know no other way
   than this: where I does not exist, nor you,
   so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
   so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.”

 

10. Marriage is ….. something that I’m looking forward to. I can’t wait to marry my Architect

 

11. Somewhere, someone is thinking….. about something
    

 

12. I’ll always know ….. that I am a lot stronger than I give myself credit for.

 

13. I have a secret crush on…. George Stephanopoulas (talk policy to me, bebe).

 

14. The last time I cried was ….. I actually have done really good with the not crying thing for the past few months even with so much going on.

 

15. My cell phone…. is red?
    

 

16. The moment I wake up… I usually smile.

 

17. Before I go to sleep… I talk to the Architect a whole bunch

 

18. Right now I am thinking about…. how nice it will be to be finished with school.

 

19. Babies are…. something that I think about for the future…

 

20. Today, I ….. spent most of the day writing papers.
    

 

21. Tonight, I …. will give myself a break and hang out a little before a busy week.

 

22. Tomorrow I…. think I have a lot of meetings and then will come home to do more work.

 

23. I really want to have…. the next two weeks finished with.

 

24.  I am…. happy right now. Life is good

If you play, let me know! I’d love to see your answers

This month, Kween of the Queens asked us to list things that give us glee.  I’m generally a very happy person and it doesn’t take me much to feel glee at all.

Here’s my (abbreviated)list:

1. Sun showers: I absolutely love them. I love the juxtaposition of rain and sun together. There’s always a better chance for rainbows when there are sun showers. Who couldn’t love them?

2. Really good talks with really good people: I’m a talker. I can be shy when I first meet someone but if I get to know you and I like you, I will talk your ear off about anything. Add a good cup of coffee and some good atmosphere and I’m good to go.

3. Traveling: There is nothing that I like better than exploring new places. When I’m not traveling, I’m dreaming about traveling. My current fixation is on our honeymoon trip (we have plane and hotel reservations all finished as of this weekend). We have a few little weekend trips coming up in May and a few tentative trips coming up for the summer. I can’t wait!

4. Reading a good book that actually tells me something I didn’t know before: I devoured a 500 page book on the history of the Berlin Wall this weekend. I’m a huge history buff and I found the book to be absolutely riveting. I learned a lot of things that I didn’t know before. It’s always refreshing to be surprised by history.

5. Lazy days: I actually got to have one this weekend. We’re always pretty busy so lazy days have been at a premium for the past few months. Saturday, I was up early. I made coffee and sat out on my balcony and read and read and read. I felt slightly guilty for not finding something slightly more productive to do but it was nice!

6. Almost being finished with my Masters: I have class this week and next week and then finals the week after. It is so close. I don’t even care that I’m going to have three pretty tough finals to contend with. I received my cap and gown in the mail last week and broke it out to march around our living room in front of the Architect in while humming the graduation march. Practice makes perfect, you know J

Life is good today, life is good today.

Go visit the Kween!

The Architect and I have a tendency to have long talks before bed. They’re usually incredibly silly but sometimes serious. We’ll usually jabber on to each other until one of us falls asleep. He’s been super busy this week out doing work stuff and I’ve been super busy this week at home writing three papers (all finished now; yay!).  Last night was one of the incredibly silly nights.

Prologue: A few weeks ago, I read The Omnivore’s Dilemma. It’s not necessarily about vegetarianism but it’s about the American food supply chain and it’s made me do a lot of thinking about what I eat and why I eat it. I have also been watching too much inciting tv such as Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution where he showed a bunch of kids the very disgusting process of making chicken nuggets (I’m really not sure I can eat at McDonalds anymore).

Meg:  You know, if it weren’t for you, I could probably be a full vegetarian.

Architect: Why don’t you cook vegetarian then?

M: You don’t like vegetables and I’m not cooking two meals.

A: I would try it.

M: If I came home and said that I was cooking tofu as a protein, you would throw a riot. No, you would throw a revolution. You would take my tofu and throw it in the cesspool behind our building. It would be your own Boston Tea Party with tofu. Boston Tofu Party. No, R_______  Tofu Party. It would turn ugly very quickly!

A: *looks at me and my verbal spew with bewilderment*

 

Commitment is something that I take pretty seriously. I believe in commitment in all aspects of life, not just relationships (although that is incredibly important). If I say that I’m going to do something, I do it no matter what it takes. If I know that someone else is counting on me to stick to my commitment, I will get it done.  I’m not good with making excuses. I don’t really do mere lip service to things. In that regard, I’m probably one of the most loyal people you could hope to meet. Give me a task and there is no doubt that it will get done.

I just don’t really understand people who can’t commit to something when they say they will. It’s especially bad when other people are counting on that commitment.

As with most of my rants these days, you can probably see where I’m going with this. Where else but school issues?

Again, I find myself working on one of those lovely group papers that I am always so overjoyed about working on. This particular group has been a mess from the beginning. No one meets when they say they will and on top of that, the stuff they choose to turn in is always riddled with spelling and grammar mistakes. Last time I checked, we were in grad school. We should have spelling and grammar under control by now.

 One particular woman in this group has been the bane of my existence.  She is late with everything and always has excuses why she can’t work under the conditions that everyone else in the group was able to work under. It’s so frustrating. Her particular excuse was that she had another paper to work on and couldn’t possibly work on ours. I have three papers due this week in three different classes and I was able to get all of those finished on time. Grrr!

I am three weeks away from this all being behind me. Three weeks. Three. Weeks. Please let me get through these three weeks without coming to the end of my fuse. That would just be bad news all around.

 

All the political going ons this week have made me want to bury my head in a pillow while screaming “Lalala, I can’t hear you!” I had problems with the health care bill but it has passed and I accept that. I am hopeful that Congress will actually make good on their promise to fix some of the potential issues with the bill. Though, my real issue stems from all of the political fighting going on.

Sending death threats to Congress people? Seriously? You think that’s going to do anything other than get you in trouble with the law man and have the label of “crazy” thrust upon your head? People usually don’t react well to threats…

On top of that, both major parties have blamed each other for the violence and threats. I have news for both parties: every time you draw attention to threats that have been made and point at the other side, the proverbial three fingers point back at you.

Don’t get me wrong; I think it is totally okay to be upset with what’s going on and it’s okay to express that anger. One should just try to express it in a healthy way as with any anger.

I’ve always been one for being political active. Even with as much as politics generally irk me these days, I still believe that it’s important to be politically aware. If you take issue with the way things are going or take issue with the people that are taking issue, do something about it.

Political things you can do without looking like an idiot:

-Give money to your favorite candidate or Political Action Committee.

- Go work on a campaign.

- Sign a petition.

- Go wave signs about your cause someplace.

- Write a blog about it.

- Join your favorite political party and get active in your community

- Join a cause you care about.

These are small actions but they have the power to do a lot more good than ugly words can.

 

I have three pieces of jewelry that I wear every day. I wear my engagement ring on my left hand. I wear my grandma’s engagement ring that I inherited when she passed on my right hand.  I also wear a charm bracelet. It’s one of the ones that you put beads on and I absolutely love it.

I went home this weekend and on Saturday, I went downtown with my mom and sisters to shop around. I bought a few more charms for my charm bracelet. One was a hanging charm with the word “lucky” on it. It’s very fitting.

I am incredibly lucky.

Last week was a little rough. I was bombarded with old memories, good and bad, that I hadn’t thought about in awhile. The brain is truly an amazing thing. It has a way of storing memories up so that you have them exactly when you need them. Some of the memories made me a bit nostalgic and others made me laugh a little bit. While it has sometimes been painful to look back, memories are a gift. You can see where you’ve been and have a hint of where you’re going.

We all are given a lifetime in which to do what we want with it. A lifetime can be a smaller amount of time than it seems. You can waste it or you can make something of it. Each day is a new choice and a new chance for change, for staying the same, for moving forward or backward. To have that choice is a gift.

Don’t think for one second that you can simply take your life for granted or anyone else’s for that matter. We never know how much time we ourselves will get or how much time we will get with those around us. Time is fleeting. You can fear it or embrace it and make the best of what time we are given.

It’s an amazing thing.