Miss Sassy Pants

So, I'm fairly convinced that I have the cutest dog ever!  She is a year and a half old and she still looks like a little lab puppy!  Every time we go on a walk about three people ask me if she's a black lab.  She's not.  But she's so social that she dances like a puppy when a lot of people are around.  I'm adding my newest favorite picture of her.. she's so freaking cute!!  That's what makes it hard to discipline her.. she is so cute and when she's in trouble she belly crawls up on me and lays flat against my chest with her little head tucked up next to my neck like she's hugging me.  ADORABLE!! 

I took this one the week I was on stay-cation.  I read 3.75 books that week, but apparently I was reading too much because she came up, sat down, and started trying to take my book away.  This is her trying to get me to stop reading and pay attention to her.  :)

Perspective

I have to say, I'm pretty darn lucky to be me.  I lose that sometimes, but I do, for the most part love my life. 

Things are better at work, uncomfortable at times because I'm caught in the middle of some ridiculous bullshit, but taking last week off did wonders for my frame of mind.  In my ENTIRE life I don't think I've ever taken a week just to myself without being sick or going somewhere.  In the past, if I've taken more than one day of work off I went to my folks or to Michigan, but last week I didn't have any obligations to anyone but my dog and it was BEAUTIFUL!! I think I'm going to have to do that more often.  Maybe I'll even take a vacation by myself. 

It really helped me get my head on straight, relax, and find my center.  I read three books, watched countless hours of Criminal Minds, Big Bang Theory, and How I Met Your Mother (All on DVD).  I got to get up when I wanted, go to bed when I wanted, walk around the neighborhood, cuddle with the pup, do some shopping.. it was FANTASTIC. 

Since I've been back I've been less sensitive to the stupidity that is going on around me, less grumpy with my boss (who didn't deserve it anyway -- well mostly didn't), less emotional, and didn't mind dealing with outraged parents.  If I had had to deal with parents last week I may have killed someone -- literally. 

So now I'm back, could careless if other people feel tension -- that's on them I'm all good. :) 

It's nice to find my perspective!!

I was asked to join a new campus initiative committee... The director of our student media asked me to sit on her "Wellness" committee.  I think this is hilarious!!  My twitter account says: "Definition of Irony: Me on a Wellness Committee... Should I take snacks?"  Because I think it is funny that anyone would ask me to be on a Wellness committee... there I was, fat girl Steph in a room with the personal trainer from the Rec Center, the Health Educator, a faculty from the Applied Health Sciences Area (Dietetics), and a professor from the Physical Education department.. Ahhahahahahahaha  Five years ago that would have made me tremendously self-conscious today it made me want to giggle from the irony...

Damn it, I may have to start thinking about wellness and trying to role model it to the rest of the fat kids on campus... Goodbye fried chicken and mashed potatoes.... I will miss you!!

Time Off

So, I just had the perfect week.  I was sick on Tuesday and Wednesday.  That sucked, but my boss emailed me and told me to take the rest of the week off.  So, I took the rest of the week off.  It was perfect.  I got to sleep for as long as I wanted.  Got to spend the week reading as much as I want with no obligations to anyone.  It was amazing!! I needed it more than I realized.  The only mar on the landscape is that I have to work on monday. 

I think I can handle everything now. :)  Was able to find my center.

Leadership

So, I'm convinced that the hardest thing about leadership is not about making hard decisions and sticking to them.  The hardest thing about leadership is having to support decisions that you don't agree with. 

Hardest thing in life to accept = sometimes you just have to toe the company line -- regardless as to if you have faith in it or not or if you agree with it or not. 

I hate office politics.

Mmmmmmmmmmmm

Well, I baked it, it was DELICIOUS, but I forgot to take a picture. 

Just Call Me Stephie Homemaker...

So, one thing I LOVE to do is cook for other people.  So, as a thank you to our staff I invited them over for Lasagna (which happens to be the best in Terre Haute -- BTW).

Because I make the sauce from scratch I have to do it the night before.  Tomorrow is when they are coming over, but made it tonight.  I even took some lousy pictures along the way.  They are below. :)

Some of the Ingredients

The Veggie Layer (Onions, etc)

Red Pepper flakes, Garlic

Tomato Paste

Add Oregano and stir it all together... let it cook for a minute or so until you can smell the tomato paste

The Juice from 2 cans of diced tomatoes, scraping the bottom of the pan to get the brown bits up.

Still scraping the bottom and mixing together.

The Sauce base... at this point you can smell the yummy out on the front walk.  

This is ground chuck that I've processed with some bread crumbs, milk, salt and pepper. 

You want to cook it, but not brown it.. so it's more of a gentle simmer in the sauce base.  

I like to make a meat sauce and add sausage as layer to my lasagna -- I just think it tastes better. 

Sassy snuck up in this chair and is trying to get to the bowls in the sink that have hamburger residue on them... Didn't happen!

The meat all most cooked -- you want it to lose the pink, but not brown or caramelize. 

Here I added two cans (14.5 oz) of diced tomatoes and two cans (28oz) of crushed tomatoes.  If you want to use this as a good meat sauce for spaghetti, then just use one can of each, but for Lasagna I like the sauce a bit saucier. :)  

Let it simmer on LOW heat for about 30 minutes or so.. So everything can meld a bit..

 

Mmm Sausage.. I love sausage.. I usually use a sage sausage for this, but decided to spice it up a bit with an Italian... I'll let you know how it works out. 

Brown the sausage and drain as much grease as you can.  I like to put it on a plate lined with paper towel, then place paper towel on top and another plate and then put a heavy pot on it to soak as much into the towels as possible.  I'm weird.. I know. :)

Then Toss it in the food processor... this is kind of an important step so that you make sure it's all uniform and can evenly spread. 

This is perfect!!  Now it will kind of "Sprinkle" over each layer.

Now that your sauce has simmered for 30ish minutes, add 1/2 cup of Parmesan and another teaspoon or so of Oregano... 

Let it simmer a bit longer then taste it for salt and pepper.  If it needs it (It usually does) add more and let it cook for another five minutes or so before you taste it again... Remember you can always add more, but you can't take it out... Also, you want to start boiling your noodles. 

Now for the cheeses.. Some people use cottage cheese in their lasagna... NOT ME.  I like the texture and taste of Ricotta MUCH MUCH better.... 

To your Ricotta you want to add approx 1/2 cup of grated Parmesan and one egg.  Mix well. 

Prepare your pan.  I always use a disposable pan because they are cheap AND I don't have to wash them later. :)

Drain your noodles and toss them with a bit of Olive Oil so that they don't stick while you're layering your lasagna.

Set up your assembly station with everything right at hand.  Sauce, noodles, sausage, ricotta, and cheese... 

Start by putting a bit of sauce down in the bottom of the pan first. 

And spread it around evenly.

Begin your layers with noodles.

Then Ricotta

Then sprinkle sausage over the ricotta

Then Sauce it up... 

Then add a layer of Mozzarella

Then start over with noodles, ricotta, sausage, sauce and mozzarella

ricotta

sausage

Sauce.  I didn't get pictures, but put one more layer of noodles over this and cover it with the remainder of your sauce.  

Sauced!

This is the AWESOME secret -- pull out a log of FRESH Mozzarella... this is KEY because it adds a deliciousness you've not yet experienced..

Is deliciousness a word??

Who cares! :)

This is the up-to-now finished product.  It went in the refrigerator.  Tomorrow I'll pull it out, cover it with aluminum foil and bake it at 400 degrees until hot and bubbly.. then I'll remove the foil and cook it for an additional 10 minutes until it browns on top.. YUMMMM!!! 

And that's my lasagna... I didn't give away the secret ingredient that makes it mine!!  However, I adapted this recipe from one I saw on America's Test Kitchen.  That one is yummy as they post it too, but I like mine better. :)

I'll post the finished product later. :)

Note:  All pictures were taken with my cell phone.. not bad eh??

Wait... they can't figure out the elevator.. they can't be THAT dumb

I was meeting with my FYI (First Year Initiative) staff today and we were going over issues we're seeing from our first year students.  Most of them are the normal issues:  they don't know how to pick up a package, they keep locking themselves out of their room, they can't figure out how to find things.. but there was one that was unusual and it frightens me...

It frightens me immensely..

They can't seem to figure out the elevator process. 

I'll say that again.. they CAN'T SEEM TO FIGURE OUT THE ELEVATOR PROCESS

For example:  Fiona Freshman is on the fourth floor.  She pushed the down elevator button.  The elevator is one the first floor, full of people and begins heading up -- dropping off people as it goes.  When it gets to fourth floor, it drops of a girl and Fiona Freshman gets on and it continues up to drop off all of the rest of the passengers.  When it finally descends to the first floor Fiona Freshman is furious because it went up instead of instantly down when she got on the elevator.  She isn't making the connection that the elevator was still going up when she got on.. it wasn't arriving to her pushed down button, but was delivering based on the other girl pushing the 4th floor. 

HOW CAN ANYONE BE THAT STUPID....  I fear for our future.