As promised:

Chicken & Asparagus Casserole

1. Trim asparagus (if needed) and steam until bright green - if using frozen, also steam it.
   
2. Trim chicken into tenderloin-sized strips and poach (boil in water) for 10 minutes.
   
3. Spray a large baking dish with nonstick cooking spray and place steamed asparagus in it.
   
4. Place cooked chicken pieces on top of asparagus.
   
5. Mix together mushroom recipe mix, sour cream and milk and pour over chicken and asparagus.
   
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.
   

Anyone who has read Raejane's blog has (hopefully) both chuckled and huffed after reading her tales of the uber-rudenicks that she somehow manages to be next to in line at the supermarket or unfortunately seated next to at a restaurant. Well I had a "raejane"  encounter - or NEARLY one of my own today.

Sorry folks but I won't be making that Chicken & Asparagus dish modification (and thus, then reporting the hopefully-corrected recipe) to you this week either as the price of boneless skinless chicken in my 'hood has just been too high lately.

Also, since hubby is still working that swing shift, we aren't eating "big" family dinners - we all have a lunch together then he sleeps and goes to work at 9:15 or so. Kiddo and I have just been eating small microwave-oriented meals for dinner.

Lately our life around the house has been a bit nutty:

Hubby is woking a swing-shift (middle of the night) for a few weeks in order to support and work with users and programmers in Europe and Asia for the project he is managing, so that's got the family schedule a bit haywire, but we are managing.

Then I spend each day researching and meetng with contractors, county, state, and town officials about converting our house to municipal sewer and water. Its like jumping through hoops and then realizing you have a long row of hurdles after that. I'm not frustrated YET... actually the sewer part is fairly straighforward. Its eliminating our well that is a real headache, due to the number of contractors that have to do their specific parts of the job  - so until I get all of the specific County legalities spelled out (the single guy who handles this is, naturally, on vacation until next week) I can't get an accurate estimate on the cost of the job. There is nothing WRONG with our well or the water pouring forth from it - in act its like drinking and bathing in Evian, its so pure and delicious. BUT the location of the well is directly behind the house - in the only location where we can build an addition. If I can get nail down exact requiements for easments from the vault and well head from the county, then it might be possible for our architecht to come up with a design that would allow us to keep the well. But until I know for sure...I'm gonna keep "diggin'" for as much information as I can get.

Per the requests for the Chicken & Asparagus in Mushroom Creme Sauce...

I will post the recipe BUT I first have to make it again with one change in ingredients. While the dish turned out delicious, hubby and I agreed that the "visual presentation" was somewhat lacking (i.e. - it looked kinda yukky but tasted kickass.)

So...

I plan to change one ingredient in the sauce that should make for a smoother, creamier look to the sauce instead of the lumpy look the first try revealed. If it turns out well then I'll post it for anyone adventurous enough to try it. (Actually its pretty easy and only has 5 ingredients in the whole dish.)

:)

Its quite sickening, really, how much cooking I've been doing since getting my new kitchen "toy". Well, not sickening per se, unless you consider that it was 83 degrees here yesterday, we don't yet have our air conditioners installed, and I decided to whip up a new recipe for dinner that required baking something for 40 minutes at 400 degrees. Man, this place was SWELTERING but DAMN! that chicken-and-asparagus-in-mushroom-creme-sauce was DELICIOUS! As I type, I await the completion of an oven-baked apple-cinnamon french toast. (Insert drooling emoticon here.)

My oven bit the dust; apparently both the ignition and gas regulator are failing. :(

By request some more Percy the kitten pics, plus my birthday "portrait":

 

"2 sleeping babies" - Hubby insisted on allowing the kitten in our bed. About an hour later he was dashing around biting our ankles (Percy, not my husband!)


Buster the senior-citizen (15 yrs old) and Percy cuddling together.


"Dangit, I need a haircut!" is the title of this pic...

Here for all to see and adore is the relied-upon, constantly re-used birthday gift bag...this one had some pretty cool gear in it this year:

• a microdermabrasion kit (which is nothing more than some pumice cream, moisturizer and what I was disappointed to learn is simply a 2-speed vibrator to use on your face!) No, hubby ain't in the doghouse for the microdermabrasion spa kit - I specifically requested it and he obliged, but I used it tonight and its a totally lame piece of cr*p, so save your $$ ladies and gents, and just get a good exfoliator cream and moisturizer with SPF in it. Or go the glcolic acid route if that suits your skin. Update: I will admit that my skin feels very soft this morning after a session with the vibe 'n grit cream last night!
  
• a large bath scrubbie (chosen by my daughter)
  
• a generous Target gift card
  
  I plan to buy a new dinette table with the gift card to replace the college-days cast-off we've been using for many years now.  Hey, I have a kid (think: crayons, play-doh, markers, spills) and pets not to mention a BUDGET so no Ethan Allen or Walter E. Smithe in the gameplan for quite awhile. And perhaps I'll have some dough left over to replace those Stevie Nicks-wannabe pieces of shite earrings I wore last night. Oh man what was I thinking...

 

My previous entries on this topic included the ultra-embarassing Bill O'Reilly and the somewhat respectable (if you're a left-leaning gal with a taste for Philly accents) Chris Matthews.

I also once had a 2-day "admiration" of Brian Williams after seeing an hilarious interview with him on Conan O'Brien. Come to think of it, Conan even made Sam Dondalson seem "hip".

I don't think I have revealed, though, my former deep-seated animosity toward Matt Lauer - which subsided once he shaved his head and (from personal media sources) really p*ssed off NBC brass. That was kinda cool!

Ew, and yuk, Anderson Cooper does NOTHING for me. Donny Deutsch - uh, let's just say his name says it ALL!!! (Ryhmes with "swoosh!")

Last year I attended the Pride parade, in part, to see Mike Barz on the WGN float. I screamed something stupid and he responded in kind by pointing to me and making some sort of friendly gesture. *sigh*

In college I was friends/coworkers with a guy who later became a sportcaster on the west coast. He had nothing in common with my friend B and I - us gals being kooky alt-rock and hip-hop dj's, he the hyper-preppy jock/frat dude. But one day, as "Todd", B, and I ran errands for the radio station, we noticed he was wearing white, and rather revealing tennis shorts. Somehow B and I became fixated on his thighs. Damn, he had some GORGEOUS thighs. Strong, but not too bulky. We're talking Michaelangelo proportions here. Oh yeah, and a great ass, too! I can still recall B and I giggling over our concurrent discovery of Todd and his wonderthighs. I think this is the point in time when my head was turned away from the pasty rock band guys who visited the station and toward the "I wear my ambition on my sleeve" driven news and sports reporters.

As I have noted before, my media crushes last about a week and then, poof, I tend to start changing the channel.  Its important to note this factoid, lest you think me some sort of highly-focussed stalker b*tch. I practically have ADD when it comes to crushes so no need for any of these quasi-celebs to fret.

As noted in a few entries below I'm currently swooning to the slightly marble-mouthed delivery of WGN news weathercaster and occasional features reporter, Paul Konrad. He is so un-pretty boy that, I guess its a refreshing change for me. He has an adorable smile and a dry sense of humor that appeal to me, although I continue to question his hairstyle choice (a buzz cut of some sort.) He is at his most crush-able when he's on location doing a features story, or wacky on-air stunt, because honestly, when he's in front of the weather screen in his navy blazer he appears heftier than a cumulonimbus cloud! Outside shots really let his personality shine through; or maybe its just more flattering lighting? Anyway, without further ranting, here are some pics retrieved from the wide world of the internet.

Bad hair but pretty eyes.

Paul showing that great smile that doesn't come across on TV as well.


Listen up people, Paul's got something to say!

After doing a little research, I also discovered (as I suspected) that Paul and I were both at NU at the same time - he as a grad student, and me as a lame freshman. Considering his field of study and my penchant for hanging around the radio station,  I KNOW that we had to have been in the same campus building at some time or another. Somehow there are always "six degrees of separation" for me...

Coming soon to a blog near you: my real-life antagonism of a cable-access tv show host and the birth of The Wig.

IDOT has generously agreed to rouse me awake each morning at 6am to the sounds of some sort of scary super-saw that is slicing and dicing the concrete road 45 feet in front of my bedroom window. Thinking about these roadway noises, as well as my oft-noted basement party fetish, I took a mental vacation to the days of living in a skeezy neighborhood off-off-campus my senior year in college. My best friend and I took over the bottom floor of a two-flat from some friends who were graduating the year ahead of us. Luckily, for our safety and sanity, some good guy friends lived in the apartment above us, so we weren't truly two gals living in the quasi-ghetto.

Ghetto? Well, it wasn't a consistently bad neighborhood. In fact it's tree-lined charm was only marred by the presence of the large old victorian house across the street: none other than a very PROFITABLE  (apparently, by the traffic volume) crack house.

Monday through Wednesday it was fairly quiet, but our little street literally turned into a sort of narcotics drive-thru on the weekends. Traffic (and the accompanyment of booming sub-woofers, yelling out of vehicle windows, and other boisterous misbehaving) steadily climbed Thursday evenings, peaking on Saturday night.

Oddly enough, the "players" who ran the "business" were somewhat friendly to us, letting us know that if we ever wanted to "party" they could hook us up.

Oh, but fellas, we KNEW how to "party" - and all without illegal narcotics.

Living on an already-loud corner afforded us the opportunity to host numerous parties that took over the entire flat - upstairs for dancing, restrooms, makeout session in the bedrooms, etc. Downstairs, raucous rockin' tunes provided by some local band or another, and, naturally, The Keg. Our sole disadvantage for attendance was our distance from campus, but there were enough adventurous souls, and devoted friends, who drifted to our flat to soak up the ambiance.

What took the cake was the ultra blowout houseparty we threw one balmy Saturday night during Spring quarter. The guys upstairs booked the band (a quite popular Chicago mod-rock/jazz combo of that era) and hauled a keg or two into the basement.

Since my apartment was on the first floor, my roommate and I set up an "admission" entryway - a buck or two per person, to offset our costs...we made over $300 and stopped collecting money after a few hours...so you can imagine the scope of this insane venture. We also went all out and set up a DJ booth - a vintage red crushed-velvet u-shaped bar on wheels  - that we rolled into the corner to collect/protect our stereo system. We plopped an old tv on top of the bar and for weeks ahead of the gig, taped various MTV clips, monster truck races, kitschy 60's movies from late night cable...all to provide a "nightclub" atmosphere for our shindig.

Our friend, Mitch, behind the ultra-fabulous bar-on-wheels

We arranged furniture to reveal a generous dance floor in our dining room, and strung up colored Christmas lights around the ceiling.

My roomate, an art major, put together the most fantastic party fliers, and made it her mission to roam the halls of the library and campus coffeehouses handing out these amusing yet informative papers to friends and otherwise "interesting" characters.



I donned my favorite black minidress and best wig, helped roommate with her false eyelashes, and then prepared for an eventful night. Since neither of us cared for beer, we supplied our own private beverage stash: a 40-ouncer of Olde English 800 for her, a sports-type bottle of diet pepsi and Jim Beam for me. The thought of these now nauseate me, not just for their putrid flavors and effects on the body, but for their utter un-glamness, as contrasted to our fabulous thrift store ensembles.

Every school  - high school, college, whatever - has its "cool" clique. In our case, there were two senior guys who, although they didn't know it, were worshipped from afar by the likes of the roommate, "B." and myself. Not that we wanted to DATE them - we just thought they were soooooo COOOOOOOOOL. "Steve" and "J.P." were their names. They were both film (or similarly less-than-employable) majors and both looked as if they had emigrated to Evanston via 1990-grunge-era Seattle. Long hair, torn jeans, the "right" flannel...the works.

B. somehow passed along a party flier to a friend of a friend of one of the above-named "cool" dudes...and so we hoped, against all odds, that these campus grunge-gods would grace our humble home with their presence on that fateful April night.

Once readied in terms of hair, makeup, furniture arrangement, and coctail concocting, B and I tuned our stereo to the now-defunct stylings of WJJD-AM: the premiere easy-listening station in Chicagoland. Think Uptempo = Perry Como; Mellow = Mel Torme. That and the velvet bar made for a swanky lounge vibe in the empty apartment. We planned to crank up the Monster Truck videos and dance music once the crowds assembled.

We expected the doorbell to begin ringing at ten. At 9:30 we still hadn't turned down the lights and were surprised by our first - and quite early - visitors. We went to the door to find none other than "Steve" and "J.P.". I don't even remember saying "hi" or "hey" or anything. I think one of us stunned lasses muttered something about beer in the basement and "welcome to our home."

I recall our upstairs flatmates (thankfully) taking the helm and whisking the dudes toward the keg, giving B and I time to scuttle into my bedroom, grab each others hands and half-screech, half-whisper, "OH MY GOD!" "WE ARE SOOOOOOO VALIDATED!" You would have thought, at that moment, that Duran Duran (for us 80's chicks) or P. Diddy (for all you kids out there) had shown up.

Even more enthralling was the admiration the the gods of cool bestowed upon our little party setup. They complimented everything ranging from the lounge tunes to the decor. And with that we were on our way to one WILD night.

Due to the combination of great weather, downtime in exam schedules, and the existing near-rabid fanbase of the band playing our gig, we had literally hundreds of late-teen/early-20-somethings swarming over the flat, into the basment, and flowing into our backyard.

Sometime around 1 a.m. or so I went into the basement to check on Keg reserves, only to find my neighbors - the Drug Dealers - pumping out some plastic cups worth of Michelob.

"Damn, you girls are CRAZY!" was the hearty compliment offered by Neighbor/Pusherman A.

Meanwhile Pusherman B was preoccupied with the view of the backside of an unknown sorority girl.

Damn, we WERE crazy!



At some point, I was so pleased with the turnout, the awesome dancing in the dining room and the general satisfaction of our guests, that I began hitting that Jim Beam mixture a bit more heavily than was customary for me. Yadda yadda yadda...the next morning we had a handsome and shirtless drummer from a different local band on our couch. After some initial questioning we realized that  both B and I had hooked up with him in one capacity or another THAT NIGHT! Luckily she and I laughed our arses off about it, and so he was able to move from sheepish explanation of the evening to nervously chuckling along with us.

After the departure of all guests, the cleanup began...never before has a backyard been littered with more MD20/20 flasks, empty cups, or fond memories.