Happy St. Patrick's Day!

In honor of St. Patrick, beer, corned beef and cabbage, and all things green, here's a little Irish blessing:

May the road rise to meet you, 

May the wind be always at your back, 

May the sun shine warm upon your face, 

May the rains fall soft upon your fields, 

And, until we meet again, 

May God hold you in the hollow of His hand.

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Beware the Ides of March

Because its my birthday!  And for all of you who know me, you know that I'm someone to be afraid of 


There is this wonderful saying "a birthday is just the beginning of another 365 day around trip around the sun."  Today I turned 24 and I'm excited for the next 364 days.  Before I continue, let me just say that 23 was a FANTASTIC year.  It was a momentous year.  I decided to go to law school.  I moved to South Carolina.  I lost about 25 pounds.  I seriously started running.  I became much more comfortable with myself, more confident.  I even started dating-ish again.  It was a good year.


I'm really looking forward to 24.  I don't think that people peak in high school or college (at least I hope they don't) because I like to think that people get better with age- its one of the commonalities people have with wine.


Anyway, I'd like to share a very few pieces of advice I've collected/learned over the past year.


First, when you find that you have friends who treat you a hundred times better than you deserve, you've found your best friend.  For life.  I'm being serious  My very best friend in the whole wide world (MVBFITWWW) Meredith is better to me than I could ever expect or deserve and I love her more than words can ever, ever express (also check out her blog...she's pretty fantastic and quite honestly one of the very best people I know:  http://frugalfinishes.blogspot.com/).

Second, just like the John Lennon song, life really is what happens when your busy making other plans.  Life happens.  Sometimes it happens like you think and sometimes it doesn't.  I honestly believe that it happens the way that it should, that there's a purpose behind everything we do.  Like last year at this time, I never thought I'd now be living in Charleston, SC and enjoying law school more than I could have expected.  But that's what happened and I'm pretty excited for the adventure ahead of me.


Third, while some things change some things still remain the same.  Although I'm now living and writing in new city, experiencing new and different people, places and having new adventures; I am still enjoying the TV show, Friends, more than words can express.  Just goes to show you, the more things change, the more they stay the same.  


Fourth, I am not a morning person.  And I probably never will be.  Hopefully one day I'll be my own boss and have the opportunity to set my own hours (which will be something like 10-2, or 3, I guess I could stand 3 o'clock as quitting time).


Fifth and finally, I can do ANYTHING I set my mind to.  Law school?  Check.  Half marathon?  Check.  Be fantastic?  Double Check.


Okay maybe not so much with the last point, but that's the goal for 24!  Here's to the next 365  day journey!  Twenty-three you were quite an adventure!  I can hardly wait to see what 24 has in store!

Chicken Parmesan

I don't think I've ever mentioned this before, but I'm Italian.  Well, part Italian.  You could never tell from looking at me, with my blonde hair and pale skin, but its true.  The only thing that I can trace from my Italianness is the ability to get a tan in the summer and an intense love of food that contains garlic and cheese.


Which explains why I love chicken parmesan.  


Even though I haven't been posting the pictures (or the recipes) my cooking/freezing/reheating plan is going well.  And I have a little bit of time right now so I thought I'd share one of my very favorite recipes - Baked Chicken Parmesan (all the flavor and none of the guilt).


First things first.  This dish NEEDS to go with a glass of wine.  So if you're anything like me and never think to put your white wine in the fridge ahead of time so its actually chilled when you want it, the first thing you will need to do is put the unopened bottle in the freezer.

Now that that's taken care of, you will need: boneless, skinless chicken breast, an egg, italian seasoned breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, fresh garlic, tomato sauce, and shredded mozzarella cheese (I get the part skim kind but you could use regular if you're not counting calories):

You will first want to clean and filet the chicken.  I am deathly afraid of getting salmonella, so I have no pictures of this process.  But thin pieces of chicken work best, and filet-ing is the only way to do it!  Once you have clean, fileted chicken, make sure you CLEAN THE ENTIRE KITCHEN WITH CLOROX before proceeding.  


Ok, now that no one is going to catch anything from the raw chicken, set the oven to 350.  And then get to prepping the rest of the ingredients.  You'll need two bowls and a pyrex glass dish.  I usually spray the pyrex with Pam, just to make sure the chicken doesn't stick.  


After that I crack an egg into one bowl and give it a good whisk.  

In the second bowl I mix the seasoning for the chicken.  I use Italian seasoned breadcrumbs, a good helping of parmesan cheese, and a generous amount of garlic powder.  I also add just a pinch of cayenne pepper.

Then I take the clean chicken and dip it into the egg, then cover it in the breading, and place it in the Pam-ed dish.

Repeat until you are out of chicken.  And bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

While its baking, peel several cloves of garlic.  In the interest of full disclosure, I love garlic.  I have never had anything that is "too garlicky."  But if you are someone who is not as enthusiastic about garlic, feel free to cut back on the amounts or just omit this step all together.

Once the chicken is out of the oven, place the whole peeled garlic around in the dish and get your tomato sauce.  I like the Ragu tomato and basil because its lite and delicious, but feel free to use your favorite (and bonus points if you make your own).

Pour the sauce onto the chicken until its covered.

Then top with cheese.

Right before you put it back in the oven, it should look kind of like this:

Bake at 350 for another 20 minutes.  During that time the cheese will get nice and melty and the sauce will keep the chicken nice and moist. 

Once its out of the oven, serve it with pasta, some salad and (of course) a glass of wine that should be completely chilled by this point.  This is an easy, healthy, delicious recipe that makes me extremely happy anytime I make it.  Enjoy!

A Weekend Fit for a Princess

After months of training and preparation, this past weekend was my Princess weekend.  Also known as my half marathon weekend.  It was a great weekend.  


My very wonderful mom drove down last Wednesday and hung out with  me until Friday when she and I left to meet all of the other princesses in sunny Florida.  Per usual, we got stuck in some crazy traffic, but made it to our hotel in time for dinner.  

Saturday was a lot of fun.  In the morning we headed off to "The Expo."  This is where you go to pick up your race number, race packet, goodie bag, and general merchandise you never knew you needed.  Last St. Patty's day I ran in an 8K race that was part of a Full/Half Marathon event.  I thought that expo was big, but it had nothing on this:

One of my favorite things at the expo was Cinderella's glass sneaker.  I even had my picture taken with it:

We spent the rest of the day by the pool.  I luckily was able to finish a bunch of homework since I was missing class on Monday.  Then we hit up the carbo load.  As an Italian-American who is also partly/mostly Irish,  I appreciate any opportunity to eat as much pasta as I like without any of the guilt.  Its amazing how much guilt 13.1 miles washes away.


After dinner it was off to bed.  Since we were running a Disney race, all of the runners have to be done before the park opens (don't want to cut that profit margin!).  This meant that we were up at two.  That's right.  Two. AM.  Disgusting.  


Then we caught a shuttle to the starting corrals.  Here's a picture I snapped of me and Kathryn on the shuttle at approximately 3:30.

We hung out for a while before gun-time at 5:45.  My corral was sent off (by Cinderella's Fairy Godmother) just a few minutes after 6.  Then we were off!  I took a bunch of pictures over the 13.1, here are some of the best:

It took us a little over 3 hours to finish, but we did!  Here's one last picture of me and Kathryn with our rocking medals!

It was an awesome weekend!  I can't wait to do it again!

Wining + Blogging

I wanted to come up with a sassy combo name for what I'm doing right now like Brangelina (but will the world ever forget Bennifer?!?!), which is drinking wine while blogging after already having a glass or two earlier in the evening, but I was unable to do so.  Partially because the first thing I came up with was "Whining" but that's what I do here on a very sporadic schedule.


I originally opened this to sing my own praises (classy, I know): I drove BY the McDonald's, ignoring my craving for a McDouble and came home where I inhaled a Boca burger instead.  Then I realized, true, I ate a Boca burger, but it was covered in Chipotle mayo (which, oh my god, it should be illegal to make something so good non-low fat).  Also I had another big glass of wine.  And crackers with hummus.  So I think driving by the McDonald's, while a victory, has kind of been overshadowed by my other non-victories of the evening.


In addition, I have class tomorrow.  And I have not done the reading.  In fact I've kind of foregone the reading in favor of watching Glee on DVD (hey a girl's gotta have priorities right?!?)  I'm not all that worried because I was called on Socratic method style last class, and handled it ok, so unless my professor completely changes her teaching style I won't be called on AGAIN tomorrow, but I might be.  Which means I'm going to have to wake up early and cram in some Civil Procedure in the morning (I know you are super jealous if you're reading this right now.  Especially if you're reading this in the morning while I have a hangover and you don't).  


So anyways, you might ask, "Andrea what were you doing out on a Thursday?!?!"  Well I'll tell you.  My section at school does this little thing on Thursday evenings called "Bar Review."  No we are not already studying for the bar (some people have really thought this).  Instead we are reviewing the bars of Charleston one by one.  Its a tough job but somebody's got to do it.  Just kidding, I hardly go. 


Last semester I went a lot in the beginning but as school work piled up, Bar Review fell by the wayside, like anything I did to get some enjoyment out of life.


As you may remember, one of my New Year's Resolutions was to enjoy myself a little bit more this year.  So mission accomplished, at least for this week.


I wish that this post had more of a continuous storyline to it.  Or even a point that it was trying to make.  But all it did was let all of the interwebs know that I like to drink wine while watching Glee on DVD more than I like reading for my class tomorrow.  Which I think we all already knew anyways.


But whatever.  Thanks for making it this far, honestly I lost part of my interest half-way through (maybe a side effect of the wine?!?).  


So goodnight and good luck!  I'll see you when I see you!

Rules for Peaceful Cohabitation

I think most people I've lived with will tell you that I'm actually a pretty easy person to live with.  I do my share of the cleaning, take out the garbage, keep common areas clean, pay bills on time, etc.  Now I'm not saying I'm a great roommate - hell I'm not even saying that I'm a good roommate.  My point is really that I tend to keep to myself, try to clean up after myself.


But I know that there's at least one part of living with me that's an absolute nightmare.  And its called the hours between 5-9 am.  I don't do mornings well.  I never have and I'm beginning to think that I never will.  Quite honestly I'm a bitch in the early AM.  


I'm not quite sure what it is, but I have a few theories.  First, I think that maybe everyone has a certain amount of  meanness in them that they need to get out.  Most people who know me would say (at least I think they would say) that I'm generally a nice person.  But most people who know me never see me in the first 30 minutes I'm awake, otherwise known as the Death Zone.


My other theory has to do with my parents.  My mom loves to sleep in.  My dad loves to be up early when he can have quiet in the house to wake up slowly and peacefully.  I think I'm a blend of the bad parts of both of those.  I love my sleep, but then I need PLENTY of time to wake up.  This process usually involves a coffee, a shower, coffee, the Today show, coffee, a crossword puzzle, coffee, oh and did I mention coffee???


Now one good thing about this whole situation is that I know that I do not mesh well with the early hours of the day.  And while I love my sleep, I'm willing to wake up early to ensure that I have enough time to do what I need to get done at a pace that I like to get things done at that time (read: super slow).  So I plan accordingly.  Class at 10:30?  That means up a few minutes before 7.  I am NOT one to rush, but I am willing to lay off the snooze button to make sure that I don't have to.


All of this means that I'm a routine person, at least I start off my days with my routine.  Up, shower, coffee, Today show, breakfast (with more coffee), hair, make-up, dressed, get some coffee together for the ride into school, and off I go.  Its perfectly timed and well-practiced.


Which brings me to THE most important rule for peaceful cohabitation with Andrea.  Don't talk to me in the morning.  Seriously just don't do it.  Anything more than a hello will put you on my list for several hours.  And you don't want to be on the list.  Besides what happens for breaking THE rule, well its just not worth it (Let's just say that I don't think that Medusa was really a monster, I think she had just woken up and was kind of pissed about it, then someone talked to her and her look turned them to stone).


Anyway, this actually hasn't been a problem for most of my life.  But I will say that I've gotten crabbier as I've gotten older and my coffee addiction has gotten bigger.  When I was an undergrad, I had my own room AND my own bathroom, so I would just take out all of my morning rage in there, away from innocent bystanders.  When I was working I was living at home with my parents.  My dad and I were getting ready for work at about the same time, but our morning routine was well choreographed, we never even saw each other for most of the morning.


And honestly it isn't really an issue right now.  Except sometimes.  Like today when an individual that I live with woke up significantly earlier than normal (I'm talking between and hour and a half and two hours earlier - they're a fast mover in the morning) and proceeded to take a long time in the shower (breaking Rule for Peaceful Cohabitation #2 - don't mess with the routine) which put me significantly behind schedule.  Once out of the shower, this person came downstairs and tried to strike up conversation, AT 7:24 IN THE MORNING.


And then doesn't get when I'm annoyed.  I know its silly.  That's not the point.  I'm just hoping this doesn't become a regular thing.  Because waking up at 4 am to squeeze my quiet time in just isn't going to work.  

Law School is like Middle School

Who knew that if you took a couple hundred academically successful with similar career goals and interests and stuck them in a room together it would turn into 6th grade?  I sure didn't.


There are actually a lot of reasons why law school is like middle school, but in the hopes of saving "material" for a later time, I'm only revealing one piece today.  So here it goes:


Law school is like middle school because in law school we have lockers.   Most days when I'm trying to open my locker at school it takes me a few times before I can open the darn thing.  I had a locker in high school, but its been a while. See by the time I was in high school, I was a locker veteran.  I could practically look at my locker and unlock it.  


So now when I'm in the locker room, I find myself embarrassingly struggling in a way I haven't done since I was 12.  


Opening my locker is only half the battle.  Once its open, I'm amazed at what I find in there.    
For example, yesterday I opened my locker to get a book and what did I find?  A pair of blue jeans.  Seriously, how did they find a home in my locker?!?!  But there they were.  Crammed in the bottom of my locker, keeping my lunch box company (more on that later).


I think I generally become absorbed in something and don't pay attention to other things going on in my life.  Which winds up with me putting things in strange places.  Or putting strange things in not so strange places.  Like my locker.


This is one law school/middle school similarity that I really like right now.  Law books are HEAVY.  And I have a bunch of them.  So having a place where I can drop them off in the morning on my way to class makes my day better and my back happier.  It's kind of like day care for my text books.  

Chicken Spaghetti

This week for dinner I mad Pioneer Woman's Chicken Spaghetti (you can find the recipe with pictures here).


But I lightened it up.  First I only used boneless, skinless chicken breast.  Second I used lightened ingredients: 2% cheddar cheese, 98% fat free cream of mushroom soup, whole wheat pasta.  Third I cut down the amount of cheese.  Fourth, and not really a lightener, but I didn't use pimentos but that was because I couldn't find them in the store.


In all honesty, the first night I was not impressed with this dish.  It was eh.  I had had a little cayenne pepper/cinnamon incident while cooking (as in I added a bunch of cinnamon, not cayenne pepper - GROSS, I know - on accident.  I scooped it all out but I just couldn't shake that from my mind).  


But the second night.  And the third.  That's where the money was.  Again for a couple of reasons.  First all of the stuff had time to sit.  Second, I added a bunch of Frank's hot sauce to it before I zapped it in the microwave.  Best improvement ever.


I'll probably make this dish again, but I'll add the hot sauce from the get go.  Also, I'll probably top the casserole with a cheese/breadcrumb mixture so its nice and crunchy and gooey.

An A-List Dinner!

One of my New Year's Resolutions was to cook a little bit more for myself.  If you've never had the pleasure of doing so, cooking for one is hard, and a little depressing.  I'd cook my favorite meals for myself, and then feast on the leftovers for the rest of the week.  While this was good for my wallet and for my waistline, it was not as good for my morale.  After about the third night of the same thing.  Again.  I'd get sick of whatever it was.  It would then sit in my fridge until I decided that I had gone bad and would toss whatever left overs into the garbage.


But not anymore.  I've decided, no resolved, to cook a little bit more for myself.  Like multiple meals in a week.  Freezing leftovers for later when I was no longer sick of whatever it was I had been eating for the past week.  This idea has kind of evolved into a two-meal/week concept.  I'll cook two meals a week, more than likely one on Sunday and one on Monday.  It'll be a refreshing change from the same thing every.single.night but not so much that I can't manage cooking twice.  Plus hopefully I'll have a few things stored away in the freezer when school does get to be too much to cook twice a week.


Tonight was my first night!  I made this couscous/shrimp/sausage thing and it was good!  Here's how its done:


First things first, I bought a package of turkey sausage but of course didn't get a picture until it was too late.  Anyways, I froze half of the package but browned the other half in the new frying pan I got for Christmas:

I got kind of worried about getting trichinosis from consuming under cooked pork, so I cut up the sausage to make sure it was cooked all the way through (next time I think I might just buy the roll of turkey sausage, it would have been way easier):

Once I was pretty convinced the sausage was done, I took it out of the frying pan and started prepping some of the other stuff.


First I made the couscous.  If you've never had couscous its kind of like rice, but smaller and more granular.  This is the brand I used:

I prepared it according to the directions on the back of the box.  When it was done I let it sit in the covered pot until I was ready for it.  This is what it should look like when its fully cooked:

While this was cooking, I did all of the prep work I would need for the rest of the meal.  First of all I got the shrimp ready.  I bought jumbo shrimp that had already been peeled:

All I did was removed the tails and washed the shrimp really well.  Just a tip: when cooking with shrimp, always, always, always, always use cold water.  Shrimp cooks very quickly so anything warmer than cold water will start the cooking process.  


Once the shrimp were de-tailed and fully cleaned, I turned my attention to this cast of characters:

Now I have been taught at least 6,000 times how to properly cut both a bell pepper and an onion so that all of the pieces are even and nice looking, but its one of those things that my brain just does not want to remember.  So chopping veggies is always a bit of an adventure for me.  


Anyways, I chopped up one green  bell pepper:

And half of an onion:

And then crushed garlic until I was tired of using the garlic press (the phrase "too garlicky" like "too chocolatey" is a foreign concept to me).  I'd say I probably crushed about 5 or 6 cloves of garlic:

When it was all done it looked like this:

Now I sauteed these bad boys in the same pan I had used for the sausage.  Sausage grease and all.  Once they veggies looked like this I stopped (the onions should be a little translucent):

Once I reached this stage I added one can of crushed tomatoes:

I brought all of this to a simmer and let it simmer some more.  Then I added the shrimpies, which made my pan look something like this:

I covered the pan and let it cook for a few minutes until the shrimp were almost all the way cooked through.  Remember what I said earlier?  Shrimp cooks quickly, they went from raw to almost fully done in about 3 minutes.  At this point I added the sausage:

And then I let this cook down a little bit too (notice a pattern?).  The sausage was already cooked by the time I added it back to the mixture, but I let everything simmer together for a little bit.  Then I added the couscous:

The couscous was great.  It really absorbed all of the liquid, much better than a pasta would have.   I mixed it all together and got this:

Which was at least as good as it looks, if not better.  I used shrimp and sausage because that's what the recipe called for, but this would have been equally good with chicken.  I definitely recommend this easy, one pot meal!

Hellooooooo 2011!!!

I can hardly believe that 2010 is over and gone.  It was a great year for me.  A lot happened, both good and bad.  But 2010 was a really different year for me.  I felt like I found myself again, and I didn't even know that the real me was missing.

While I'm sad to see the year go, I'm excited to see what 2011 has in store.  I know its going to be an even better year!

But what's New Year's without some New Year's Resolutions?  Here are a few that I made for 2011:

1. Be optimistic.  This was a resolution I made last year, and I thought it was a really great one.  It was one I actually followed through on, and it made a huge difference in my life.  So I'm going to recycle it for the next 12 months.
2. Finish a half marathon.  Hopefully I'll be able to cross this one off my list at the end of February, since that's when the Disney Princess Half Marathon is.  Goal: to cross the finish line and still be breathing.  Bonus points if I can cross the line with a smile on my face.
3. Take a few minutes each day for myself.  I'd love to get a little bit of reading done each night, do a crossword puzzle in the morning, or some other stress reliever each day.  

So here's to 2011!  Which will hopefully be the best year yet!