Whirlwind week of cooking

8. Read 50 books (26/50) - in progress

I read another Diane Chamberlain this week, "Breaking the Silence." It was probably my favorite of the three I've read, for its mystery and for the social issues it addressed about mental institutions in the 1950s. It had the elements of an emotional, Picoult-style read, but it was also riveting and unexpected, and I actually chose to finish reading it instead of going back to bed one morning... which is an anomaly in my lifestyle, to say the least.

25. Learn to cook 52 new recipes and organize them in one place (19/52) - in progress

I essentially cooked dinner all week for my family while I was home, which was surprisingly not stressful. Taking advantage of my parents' budget and much nicer kitchen than I have at my apartment took away the worry about do I have enough money for fancy cheese and do I have enough counter space to assemble a pan of enchiladas. And as an added bonus, I didn't have anything better to do, so it was absolutely fine for dinner to take an hour or even an hour & a half to make.

Stuffed Peppers -- Got the recipe from the Giada de Laurentiis book my aunt swapped me for Christmas, New Italian Favorites. The peppers took a while to cook (an hour), but I kind of liked it that way because it gave me time to get the pizza together & do the dishes so I didn't have to worry about them after dinner. Taste-wise, they were alright... and substance-wise, one pepper could have been a meal in itself.

Barbecue Pizza -- Found this recipe when leafing through one of my mom's magazines and didn't give it a second glance... until she told me to make something that would get rid of the leftover rotisserie chicken in the fridge. Voila, barbecue pizza. I used a premade crust at home, but I have fresh pizza dough now and I'm going to make it again tomorrow... very simple, very delicious.

Enchiladas -- Recipe from the Pioneer Woman cookbook I got for Christmas. It's apparently been a best-selling cookbook for a bit, and I do have to give kudos to the woman who wrote it for laying out the steps very clearly and arranging them so I wasn't trying to do 20 things at once. For a somewhat complicated (in my opinion, I suppose) recipe, I was not stressed out about having to make three separate parts and then assemble them. And, they were delicious!

Fusilli Caprese -- OK, that's not technically what it's called, but it's something similar and my cookbook is packed away in a mess of belongings I have chosen not to unpack just yet. I've only been home for four hours though, so you can cut me a little slack. In any case, it's exactly how it sounds: pasta with mozzarella, tomatoes & basil. I think it needed more basil, or tomatoes, or garlic, or some Italian seasoning or something. The melted mozzarella was fabulous, but the overall taste was a little bland.

Bruschetta -- So ever since I saw Julie & Julia in the summer, I have wanted to make bruschetta. Desperately wanted to make bruschetta, in fact. So I snagged a simple recipe offline, and it was pretty good. In an ideal world I would have tossed some eggplant in there, beefed up the veggie count, etc. But I had leftover mix from the stuffed peppers, so I just added some more tomato & called it a day. In the end, it was as delicious as I expected and I could easily eat that for multiple nights' dinner.

27. Follow Virginia Tech & Steelers teams for a full football season - accomplished

Done! Steelers won last week but didn't have a good enough record / conference record / something to make it into the playoffs. Too many teams had to lose... and they won instead. Which is OK, I suppose. We deserve the outcome we got -- losing to Kansas City, Oakland and Cleveland was not our hottest streak. I'm really glad I put this on my list, because I really like to watch football and I really like to learn about it too. I haven't picked a second choice team to cheer for in the playoffs, so we'll see what happens there.

56. Exercise 2-3 times a week (20/143) - in progress

Nope, didn't move my butt nearly at all this week. I keep coming up with different excuses. During the semester, it's because I'm on campus from 9 am to 9 pm: I'm too busy. Over break, if I didn't put on my sports bra & shorts before I came downstairs in the morning, I set up camp on the couch & couldn't motivate myself to move: I didn't have a structure and it was too easy to waste away the day. So. I'm not even really sure what to do about that.

73. Volunteer for 50 hours (8/50) - in progress

I went over to my elementary school this past Wednesday to help the second graders in Adam's class with Writer's Workshop. He really wanted me to go, and to be honest it really was exactly the same as helping Adam with his homework in the evenings because I only had him & one other girl in my group. But Adam was excited for me to come in, and apparently so was his friend Cooper, so I guess I am quite the popular coed in a classroom of seven year olds.

90. Use cards that have compiled in my home desk - in progress

I took these back to JMU with me today & I plan to use them to write thank-yous for my Christmas presents tonight while I watch the Law and Order: SVU marathon. My parents were talking about how it was really driven into their heads to write thank-you notes as kids, and it made me realize that it's really kind of rude if you don't. Plus, everyone loves getting real mail!

-- Till next time.