June 26, 2017

Hey folks! So it's been a really long while. I was wanting to share some cooking observations. This seems to be as good a place as ever. Life goes on. My sister Sandy us happily living in Oregon. Barrie is changing jobs after 28 years at her school. She'll be nice and close now. Kelley I think is at a different place than previously but still a social worker. Tracey's work literally moved across the street to a new City Hall. My folks have had some health issues to deal with, my mom got a new pace maker recently, but I'm so fortunate to have them so close.

School...omg! I am now on my 8th principal since 1984! Our district continues to be in disarray. It has been a wild year. Still in the ghetto room. Margie, my team partner is living her dream and I miss her terribly. I've been teaching since December of 1980. A very long time.

Ok, back to the cooking. I usually make food on Sundays for my folks. I love to cook and they are very good about eating pretty much anything I make. I've been so inspired by food I eat out, cookbooks and TV. I watch a lot of cooking shows on TV. Since my knee operation, 2 1/2 years ago, I don't really watch Satellite TV anymore. I watch Create TV which has a lot of cooking shows. Also IonTV and LiveWell TV. I'm especially enjoying Pati Jinich and Rick Bayles for Mexican, and a Chef's Life for the story and recipes. I even bought Chef Vivian's cookbook.

So my tips for the week.
I save vegetable parts like the ends, peels and freeze them. When I am making soup, I pull out my stash and make my own vegetable stock. Then the veggies can still be composted. Lots more flavor than the boxed stock. Also salt free for my mom.

I made pork chops from a recipe on TV. Start to cook seasoned pork chops, they were very thick, on both sides. They don't need to be cooked through. Remove and cook chopped leeks. Wash the heck out of them first. I saved most if the dark green for my freezer bag. Cook then add apricot preserves and mix. Put chops back in and cook until tender. I used sugar free, btw. Tasted great!

I had made steak with lots of sauteed onions and three colors of bell peppers. Fine but I rewarmed them up with butter, don't judge, and a mixture of Worchester sauce and balsamic vinegar. Super delicious!

And finally, Les Amies restaurant in Fullerton works magic with cauliflower of all things. I attempted to recreate it. I roasted quarters of cauliflower until they were browned on the edges. The sauce consisted of a white sauce with lots of lemon juice and spices. They serve it with parsley, pine nuts with chopped onion on top. Mine turned out pretty good!

Hopefully I'll be more diligent and get to this more often. 😀

June Gloom

I love my classroom.  I have been in room 13 for 25 years. How do I celebrate my anniversary? By packing upand moving out, my principlal has a vision. Obviously I don't share the vision.  I am very sad not to mention full of stuff and I have neither the time or desire to sort it out too much. The new room is ugly, ugly, ugly! Enough said!

Spring!

It turned out to be a beautiful. It would been a perfect day if Nev was feeling better. He's been coughing all day/night. We think its allergies but he feels warm a lot. Maybe he's suffering from male menopause. LOL! Just me and the cat on the bed. Trying to figure out a comfortable way to hold the laptop or at least see and access it so I don't mess with the cat and don't have to type with one hand. Technology! I don't use the laptop nearly so much these days because I use my phone. Finally got a smart phone and I love it! I wish there way a way to magically keep everything charged, seems I am always plugging in a cord for something. One week of school before two glorious weeks of vacation. Just need to get through conferences, testing, report cards and some testing. Still!!! Think I will head out to Joannes or Michaels before the night is over. Hate to be a coupon waster

Brett came for a quick visit and a job interview. It was great to see him and I hope he gets it. Thinking good thoughts.

Broken Hearted

My baby nephew Brett is moving! Well, OK, he's 18 and he's going to Idaho to live with his dad. I l love my nephews as if they were my own! They live next to my mom who is across the street from me. He is off to see what's what at his dad's house, he recently moved from Whittier. He is planning on driving up, at least he'll be with his friend Jeffery with him for the drive and that will probably be a grand adventure. So, good bye Bretty, I love you tons!!! Take good care of yourself, it gets cold in Idaho! Keep in touch sweetie! Love, Auntie Robin

June Gloom

So, it has been ages, 6 months since we have "spoken". I was feeling guilty, obviously, it doesn't take much! Busy time of the year, still working, and the weather is gloomy.

Found out I have arthritis in both knees, thus the pain. My last recital in May was hard and I haven't dancing over a month.

Family is pretty good and my nephew is graduating from Cal Hi on Thurs! Congrats sweetie!
Promise to write more soon!
Robin

Merry Christmas to all!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! Ours was the usual rush, rush, rush, but that's our life and it works most of the time. We are just lucky our families live so close to each other.
The rain really messed up my shopping plans, it rained so darn hard! A couple days off and it started again tonight, a lot. Glad stores stayed open late, Sears has saved me a couple of years in a row, they seem to sell a little of everything for everybody. My mom and dad will be returning their Cannon blankies, kind of like a Snuggie but classier I thought, way too big, heavy, and warm for them. I hate returns!! I knitted a ton of scarves and I think the people were happy with them. Even made one for an almost 3 year old! I sewed a folklorico skirt for the same little niece, I used to sew a lot more and should do it more. The only other thing I crafted was a chip board album for my Secret Santa at work. Oh, I did make floral arrangements also. I'll be forever grateful to Bill Coleman, my flower teacher from so many years ago. I got to spend quite a lot of the day with my youngest sister, Sandy who lives in Tehachapie. It is quite a drive to Whittier, her family ends up celebrating Christmas the 26th. Thankfully, they got home all right tonight. Church was the loser of our attention this year. Shopping and wrapping were the thing. My "Favorite Thing" a la Oprah, this year was a clear, craft bucket of cardboard tags. They are almost done and the bucket will become one of my craft containers!!! We spent last night at Nev's brother's and sister in law's house with his parents and the other brother and 6 kids. They were so excited and had so much energy!! Today was spent with my family but Nev excused himself at 2 to watch the Lakers play. Oh well! I have been tamaled out, they are delicious and think I better freeze that last dozen I have in the fridge. Again, Merry Christmas to all!!! Robin

The Holidays

Hello from Whittier! Just a couple of weeks until Christmas! Yikes!

My sister Kelley complained that I wrote something nice about my family on a Thanksgiving post on Facebook but I never write it for them? She's not on Facebook very much, evidently. So if you know me, you know I have a nice family, I'd be lost without them, and I am grateful they are in my life.

One more week until vacation. I have a recital next week and there are a lot of practices ahead for this week. We have a Holiday show at school and my kids are singing and dancing to "Ay, Ay, Ay, Its Christmas" by Ricky Martin. They are cuter but the actual performance is sketchy. :-)

We have a Union Holiday party also this week and I need to go buy the decorations for the table. It has turned into quite the production.

Work is work. Too much testing, not enough teaching and 30 kids with no help is daunting. The fact we will not be going full day K this year sucks big time and the fact decisions are made with no input is frustrating. I think morale is at an all time low. A bright spot is that I have a nice parent that helps often and Derita has come in twice to work with my students! Always nice to have an adult in the room with me!

Nevin is at church, I don't want to go at 8:30 in the morning so we are at a standstill. He goes alone. He got quite sick last week and lost 10 lbs in 5 days. He really had nothing to eat but he is OK now. He does not recommend this method to lose weight.

Drop me a line!!