ColorMePink!

A few months ago, while in Publix dairy section, I noticed that they were now carrying Greek yogurt.  Greek yogurt is a much thicker type of yogurt than what we’re used to and it is fab-u-lous.   I made a mental note to add a recipe to my next shopping trip that could use the yogurt and then promptly forgot about it for three months. Hey I’ve got a lot going on here, cut me some slack.

Anyway, last week I remembered and decided that we were due for some Chicken Fauxvlaki - it’s like souvlaki, but I change it out so much that I think I could get in trouble for calling it souvlaki.  Again, I digress.

One package of thin sliced boneless, skinless chicken breasts grilled and sliced into strips
Head of iceberg lettuce chopped into bite sized pieces
couple of red ripe tomatoes (the kind without salmonella), chopped
Whole grain pitas, lightly toasted and open on a plate
thin sliced red onion
Tzatziki sauce (recipe follows)

Pile everything on top of the pita except the sauce - sprinkle a little Extra Virgin Olive Oil and a little vinegar of your choice (I used red wine vin. this time) Add big dollops of the tzatziki.  Don’t try to pick it up and eat it like a sandwich, it won’t work.  Just use a fork and when you get to the pita, it’s all gooey and delicious and you can wipe up the plate with it and eat it.  Then you can lick the plate clean. 

Ok, here’s the magic…

24 oz. or larger container of Greek Yogurt
2 cucumbers, peeled, seeded, chopped into very small pieces (some people grate it, I like the chunks)
3 cloves of garlic peeled
one lemon
one bunch fresh dill 

A couple of hours before you’re going to eat, empty the entire container of greek yogurt into a bowl (if you can’t find the greek stuff, drain regular unflavored yogurt through a cheese cloth into a bowl over night in the fridge- but only after exhausting every option to find the greek stuff) 
Add the cucumbers
Grate the garlic into the mixture using a micro planer, it really makes a difference.
Squeeze the lemon into it
chop and add the dill

Toss until it’s very well mixed and refrigerate for a couple of hours.  If you do it the day before, be warned that the garlic flavor intensifies.  I love garlic so that doesn’t bother me at all, but make sure your companion eats it with you, or else they will not want to kiss you.

If you’re really looking to be bad, make some french fries and dip them in the tzatziki too - you won’t know what hit you.

Guess what!  I’m moving!  Guess where!  To another rental.  Guess why!  New underwriting guidelines are making it very hard for us to get an approval in the right interest rate area, with a payment that will allow us to actually purchase a home that comes with a yard and appliances, a floor and walls.  Apparently, the amazing deal I made myself two years ago when I rented this house, has come back to bite me on the you know what.  Whatever. I’m so over this “let’s buy a house” fiasco.  So, after a day and a half of serious grieving over what might have been, I decided that the one thing that I really wanted was a pool.  When I sat down to think about what I really want there were just a couple of things that really need to happen… They are:

1. A Pool
2. A studio of some sort for me to work in, with great natural lighting
3. A bit of separation from the children’s living area so that I might have a little privacy
4. A Pool
5. Lots of room to roam around, inside and out
6. A big bathtub
7. A Pool

So, I visualized myself up quite a house - and then I started looking for one that I could rent that was in the same area and that I could afford.  And then I willed into existence.  No really, I did.  We’re moving August 1st into a gated 3800 sq. foot house with three fireplaces, a jacuzzi tub, a steam shower, a studio off the kitchen, decks all around the upper level, a pool(!!!), a 4 bay barn, a pond with a fountain, on 5 acres.  Hello!  All that and a bag of chips (oh and a pool).  I’ll post pictures soon. 

I can’t believe that he died 4 days ago and I didn’t know, that no one told me, that I had to find out about this on my own.  Photographic History    Seven Words

If you don’t know that any of these links are totally not family safe, then you can’t possibly understand how important he is.

Need a Treo 650?  I’ve got one in very, very good condition up for sale on Ebay. We’re switching everyone to AT&T - all my sprint phones have to go!

My Auctions

I seem to be coming across that phrase, or some version of it, everywhere I turn.  And honestly, I think I really need to heed it.  

I consider myself a fairly spiritual person… I’m always looking for ways to better myself and my surroundings.  I have, I believe, come a very long way from the selfish little girl I was 20 years ago.  I have let go of things that hurt me, I have forgiven people (including myself), I have made amends where they were necessary.  I have successfully changed the way I view money and earnings and life and I’m pretty happy with where I stand now.  I’m confident that I’m raising my children in a loving manner, teaching them to be loving and tolerant and open-minded.  We, as a family have recently become more aware of the Earth and our shared plight and we’re doing things very differently in our house in regards to consumption and disposal.  Please don’t get me wrong; there is and always will be room for improvement.  I believe that is the point of the human experience. So, I’m not saying all of this to pat myself on the back.  I’m making a point, I promise. 

There is one area that I can’t seem to get a handle on.  It’s my weight. I’ve always had issues with weight and it’s only gotten worse over the years.  I come from a family, on my mother’s side, of mostly very thin, tall, less, shall we say, endowed women.  Some of them became more voluptuous as they neared middle age, or had a couple of children, but when I was growing up I was surrounded by very tall, very thin women. It didn’t do much for my self esteem as it was always brought to my attention.  

As I got older, my weight went up and down, up and down.  I was skinny, skinny once for about 8 months in 1986, then in May of ‘87 I broke my ankle and was in a cast from my toe to my thigh till August.  That was also the month that my brother died and well, let’s just say I was pretty self destructive for the next couple of years.  That was 20 years ago and now I’m 43 and I have spent decades obsessed with my weight.  (Hmm, do obsess and obese have the same root word?). Every morning, for as long as I can remember my weight has been my first thought in the morning and my last thought before I fall asleep.  

What You Focus On Expands and What You Resist, Persists

So, focusing on my weight, night and day for the better part of 4 decades has caused what?  Can you imagine?  Yeah, I thought you could. 

About a week ago it dawned on me.  Hello?  McFly? What You Focus On Expands and What You Resist, Persists.  I decided that that the particular methodology of focusing on fat, fat, fat hasn’t really turned out so well for me.  It’s time to try something else. 

From now on (and for the last week or so), I’m not going to obsess.  I don’t know how I’ve turned that switch off, but just like that, I made the decision not to do it anymore. (I did that when I quit smoking too - I guess when you’re ready, you’re ready) I eat very healthy meals and I’m working on getting more physical,  but the bottom line is, I’m not going to focus on “fat” anymore.  From now on, the focus is healthy.  I recently had an entire blood panel done and according to my Dr., I’m the healthiest overweight person he’s ever seen.  So, we’ll go from there.  Focusing on health and well being (physically and mentally), eating fresh, non-processed, as local as we can, food, and contributing to the world wherever we can, in whatever way we’re called.

Join me, won’t you?  Focus on your strengths.  Focus on the things that bring you joy, that fill you up. Focus on what you wish to bring about, not what you wish to get rid of… because as we all know:  What You Focus On Expands and What You Resist, Persists

If you’re interested, I’ve got some Switched on Schoolhouse Curriculum up for auction on Ebay.

Pesto.  Basil Pesto. But what baffles me is why people want to make it so difficult. It’s not difficult at all, as a matter of fact, it’s the easiest thing on the planet to make and it always results in a very impressive meal.  I made this last night and it was Out of. This. World.

Pesto

Basil (Two Bunches or two packages of fresh basil - rinsed and drained)
Garlic (4 cloves)
pine nuts (a whole envelope, or a whole small spice containers worth)
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Grated Cheese (I like Locatelli, grated with an italian food processor - see below)

Ok, now pull out your real food processor, strip the basil leaves off of the thick stems and add to the processor bowl, peel and smash the garlic cloves with the broad side of the knife and add them to the bowl, add the pine nuts and process until everything is chopped finely.  Add a whole mess of the cheese (you really can’t mess this up - add what you think looks good.  Finally, use the spout thingie and drizzle extra virgin olive oil into the bowl while it runs.  Continue to do this until it’s a spring green color and a thick liquid.  I’m telling you, I’ve never measured any of this, I just do this by eye and it has NEVER come out wrong. 

I prepared some pasta (whole grain linguini) according to the package and then I pan seared some scallops in a little bit of butter on high heat until they have a 1/4 in. golden crust on one side, flip and repeat.

Drain pasta (reserve a cup and a half of pasta water), and return to pot (off the heat), add pesto and toss.  Add pasta water a little at a time, tossing pasta and pesto until well mixed, you don’t have to use all the water, but you can if you need to. Plate and add scallops on top of pasta and pesto.  Uncork a nice “Big Tuscan”, Nugola Vecchia is my personal favorite - or a chilled Perseco.  Really either one would be perfect.  Enjoy.

A broken word.  Whether it’s a promise to a loved one, a scheduled meeting with an associate, etc.  When you say you’ll do something, do it.  If you don’t intend to follow through, don’t make the promise.  And if something comes up where you can’t keep your commitment, pick up the phone and let the other party know.  So many times I’ve been on the receiving end of a broken word where the other party doesn’t even address the slight and I swear it sends me right over the edge.  It says, loudly and clearly, that you don’t care or respect the other person; that you’re time is so much more important than theirs.  

I can forgive a lot, but this one just sticks in my craw - I’m sure that it speaks volumes about me and my dysfunctional need to be validated, but I don’t care, it’s just rude.

If you haven’t watched yet, go away now… Come back when you’ve watched…
(more…)

I have? oh. Sorry.
Another of the presents that I asked for was a midi to USB cable - they’re these very expensive little cables that go from the back of your midi capable instrument (in my case the keyboard and the drum machine) into your USB port. For this particular situation we’re recording them into Garage Band and don’t want to tell everyone to be quiet while we record very complicated compositions, like “Heart and Soul”, or “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”. The dog especially isn’t inclined to cooperate - especially because he thinks he’s the back up singer, you know, like the Pips, or the Time, only there’s only one of him and well, he’s a dog.
Anyway. So I got this cable for my birthday and just today got around to attempting to figure out how to use it. I don’t know why I waited so long, but I just thought it was going to be a pain. I was right.
Six hours. Six hours I played with this thing. I spoke to Apple, I Googled everything. It was not easy. Apparently my Casio wk3000 isn’t a big fan of my yamaha midi cable and neither is a huge fan of mac. Luckily, I don’t take no for an answer. If you’re running into the same issue, email me (christine at colormepink dot com) - I don’t want to bore everyone else, and honestly - I’m not really interested in writing a manual for anything. But I’d be happy to help if you need it.

Needless to say, when I finally got it to work, I wasn’t really interested in composing anything, or attempting any difficult pieces, so here’s my half-assed, not very good, two track offering.

Heart and Soul

Quincy?  I’ll be waiting for your call.