Welcome Back!

I loved this project. Unfortunately, along with almost every other journal in my life, it was left abandoned. However, there is no reason not to pick up where I left off. It just means that I will have to be even more adventuresome in the next 504 days. I have updated my original list with the items that I have completed in the last year. There were some big ones! I may make some future blog entries reflecting on some of those items. I have also updated my next 45 items. Wisely, I have included a goal about regular blogging. Hopefully this will create a habit. I have acquired some new habits from this project, including a regular vitamin regimen and my affection for NPR. Even if I don’t complete this project on time, and even if I lapse in blogging, this project is worth coming back to. 

Mega-Blog (Part Deux)

Again, I am the world’s worst blogger. Perhaps one of my additional goals should be to follow a blogging schedule. Here is another mega-blog about the progress of my project.

36. Listen only to NPR for one week. [Completed 04/11/11]

I found myself traveling to Hartford almost every day for one week, and NPR is the only radio station that won’t go out of service between here and there. I was also spending a lot of time in the car, so I decided that was as good a week as any to complete item. Unfortunately, I picked the week where NPR was kicking off its membership campaign. Overall, though, it was a great experience. I am still listening to NPR quite regularly.

38. Learn Italian salutations and pleasantries. [Completed 04/03/11]

Ciao! Mi chiamo Mela. Voglio caminare en Mystic con Antony. I think I asked him this eighteen times on our Italian day. I need to get back in the habit of learning and practicing more often.

47-56. Visit at least ten museums.

I took my students to Boston for a few days, and we were able to visit the Boston Museum of Science [04/16/11]. The kids loved it. We also got to see a baby chick hatch! It was amazing. After I got home, I turned around and joined my family on vacation in Washington D.C. We traveled to the Museum of the American Indian [04/18/11], the Museum of Natural History [04/19/11], the Air and Space Museum [04/18/11], the Museum of American History [04/19/11], and Ford’s Theatre [04/20/11]. We had a great time.

68-72. Go to five restaurants I have never been to.

Steak Loft [05/17/11] To be fair, my mother says I have been to this restaurant, but I have no recollection of this event. My amazingly wonderful boyfriend took me here for our anniversary dinner. I had a steak and stuffed sole combo, and he had crab cakes and barbequed ribs. Everything was quite delicious. Afterwards we had cookies and milk while we watched Jeopardy. A perfect anniversary :-)

Anthony’s Pier 4 [05/22/11] I was lucky enough to join the Cometa family in celebrating Anna’s graduation from law school. Her parents treated us to a delicious lunch at this historic restaurant. The food just kept coming! My favorites included the fried oysters, the clam chowder, and the popovers. Even more impressive, though, was the amazing life that the owner had led. I think he had met every important and influential person ever. He even had a Congressional Medal of Honor AND a blessing from the Pope!

75-93. Complete the Connecticut Wine Trail in one year.

Bishop’s Orchards [05/21/11] Cara and I spontaneously visited Bishop’s Orchards after a trip to the Renaissance Faire. I LOVED this shop/orchard/winery. It was so fun. I also spend way too much money on wine and specialty pastas, but it was a wonderful day :-)

103-112. Try ten new recipes by ten different chefs.

Butternut Squash Lasagna [04/22/11] I’m pretty sure that this lasagna will soon replace currency. It is so delicious. I made it for a little dinner party Anthony and I had with our friends Josh and Emily. Great fun was had by all. Here is a link to the recipe and a tutorial with the chef!

Butternut Squash Lasagna

127. Get a pedicure with a friend or relative. [Completed 05/13/11]

My friend Sheila from work introduced me to a great place for pedicures. Nails Spa II in Waterford has the most bang for your buck! I also still have an amazing pedicure waiting for me at Elizabeth Arden’s Red Door Spa, but that will be a solo-Melanie day. :-)

178. Buy a car. [Completed 04/30/11]

Meet Cecilia, my 2011 Honda Fit. I’m in love.

184. Buy and use a case for my iPhone. [Completed 05/23/11]

This is a little intense for me, but my phone is currently sporting a purple zebra print case. I really like it, but I’m not sure it’s me. I’ll give it a couple weeks before I change it…

That makes 34 items completed in 145 days. I’m a little behind, but can catch up quickly. If I complete 26 items by the end of June, I will be on track. Here we go!

Mega-Blog

I am the worst blogger ever. My project has not been left ignored, simply un-blogged. Here is a quick recap of the last month.

68-72. Go to five restaurants I have never been to.

Ocean Pizza [02/12/11] I visited Ocean Pizza in New London with Mom and Mandy after a little shopping adventure. It was surprisingly large, and their menu was so varied. I enjoyed an eggplant grinder with a cup of clam chowder. Mandy had a bacon cheeseburger with fries, and Mom a Reuben. I couldn’t get over all of the huge dishes that were being delivered to the tables around me. It was a nice, local place. My eggplant was okay, but my chowder was DELISH! Mandy’s burger looked mouthwatering.

74. Try a new vegetable. [Completed 03/04/11]

Purple Potatoes! I know potatoes are more of a starch than a vegetable, but I’ve decided to let it slide. Purple potatoes are so cool. I’ve seen them on Food Network, but I was pretty skeptical. Someone brought in a trio of roasted potatoes from Mystic Market to our staff potluck. The purple potatoes were mixed in with Yukon gold and sweet varieties. This was beautiful to look at and super tasty. The purple potatoes seem saltier than the Yukon gold and contrasted nicely with the sweet potatoes. I loved them!

95-99. Try five new soup recipes. [Completed 02/19/11]

Tomato and Parsnip [02/19/11] Turns out, I don’t really like parsnip. I probably won’t make this again, although, it was great fun to use my immersion blender. My five new soups are hereby completed!

103-112. Try ten new recipes by ten different chefs.

Maui Onion Dip [02/04/11] I love onion dip. I will never make it from a package again. This was easily the best onion dip the world has ever seen, and it was so easy. Make this. I dare you.

Bavarian Cream Donuts [02/12/11] Anthony got a crazy idea to make Bavarian Cream Donuts per Emeril Lagasse’s recipe. This was not a recipe for the light-hearted cook. I did get to face my fear of cooking with yeast. Although Anthony and I were pretty doubtful about this success of this recipe, they turned out great. It was also just wonderful to cook with Anthony :-)

Shrimp with Pasta and Tomato Cream Sauce [02/14/11] Giada de Laurentiis is my girl. I made this for Valentine’s Day. Unfortunately, I forgot my immersion blender! So, I decided to puree my sauce the old-fashioned way and used a blender. I was on my last batch of hot and bubbly sauce, and I lifted the blender to pour my concoction over the shrimp and pasta. The bottom fell out of the blender, and my tomato cream sauce went EVERYWHERE! It’s a wonder I didn’t burn my hand off. Anthony was so good about cleaning it, despite my crying over “ruining Valentine’s Day”. I thinned out the little bit of sauce we had left with some chicken broth, wine, and cream. Even after the blender catastrophe, this meal turned out to be delicious. I will certainly make it again, although, I will be sure to remember my handy immersion blender.

Chocolate Fondue [02/15/11] I had intended to have Tyler Florence’s Chocolate Fondue with our Valentine’s Dinner, but we ate too much shrimp and pasta. We made it the next day, and it was super good. The recipe calls for hazelnut syrup, which added a magical touch. Unfortunately, fondue is really for a party; gthere was way too much leftover.

141. Use a personal day.  [Completed 02/28/11]

My cousin Steven got married on a Sunday night in February. I thought the following Monday would be a perfect occasion to use a personal day, and I was right. Having a job rocks. Getting paid on your day off rocks harder.

183. Update and organize my iTunes library. [Completed 03/09/11]

This is making me so happy. Between switching iPods and computers, my iTunes library was a total mess. Over 1,000 songs had lost their information, so I had to listen to every track and re-label it. It was definitely a pain, but so worth it!

209. Cantor at Our Lady of Lourdes. [Completed 03/05/11]

This was awesome! I’m now on the Cantor schedule and will regularly be singing masses at the church J

211. Attend a concert at Mohegan Sun or Foxwoods. [Completed 03/12/11]

Anthony and I went to see Celtic Woman this week. They were wonderful! Although, the nymph playing violin was a little irritating.

217-226. Watch ten of AFI’s Top 100 American Movies.

Casablanca [02/01/11] Now I’ve seen Casablanca. The end.

236. Knit a wearable scarf. [Completed 02/02/11]

I have a feeling that I will crochet blankets for my babies. Knitting is tedious, but it did calm my nerves when I was feeling anxious about anything. Most importantly, I have a beautiful, purple scarf.

238. Watch the “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman” series.  [Completed 02/16/11]

A childhood dream, realized. :-) 

"Snow Day Soup"

Will I ever return to school? It's beginning to seem that we should scrap the year and start over. At first these mini-vacations were glorious, but my summer vacation is shrinking before my eyes. My favorite part of a snow day is having time to cook. It has become a tradition for me to watch the snow fall and warm up with a pot of fresh soup. However, today I decided to challenge myself to make a new soup without a recipe. The result? Tomato, Corn and Crab Bisque. Or, as Amanda calls it, "Snow Day Soup".

Ingredients:

1 tbs olive oil

1 small onion, diced

1 celery stalk, including leaves, diced

1/2 red bell pepper, diced

2 garlic cloves, minced

Salt

Pepper

Old Bay seasoning

2 bay leaves

1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes (with basil)

6 cups chicken broth

6 oz lump crab meat

1 cup corn (canned, frozen. or fresh)

1 cup orzo, (other small pasta)

1/2 cup Mexican blend cheese

Add oil to a large saucepan and place over medium heat. Add onion, celery, red pepper, garlic, and salt. Sweat the vegetables for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add pepper and Old Bay to taste. Add tomatoes, 2 cups of chicken broth, and bay leaves. Bring to a boil. Cover, and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 10 minutes. Puree soup with an immersion blender, or in batches with a standard blender. Add crab meat and corn and return to a simmer. Meanwhile, boil remaining 4 cups of chicken broth. Cook orzo in the broth according to package directions, but do not drain. Add cooked pasta with broth to the tomato soup. Add cheese and stir until melted. Enjoy :-)

This recipe allows me to cross off  65: write an original recipe, in addition to completing one more soup recipe for goals 95-99. In addition, my scarf should be completed at the end of the week!

Piano, and Knitting, and Running...

Oh my! Despite being snowed in for the majority of the week, I have been accomplishing quite a bit from my list. First of all, I completed 205: learn all of the major scales on the piano. Have I already learned this in my life? Perhaps. I did receive "A's" in all of my college piano classes, but even after competing in the "Scale Olympics", I have never felt confident in my piano abilities. Teaching has helped me to improve my skills exponentially, but it seems that a stable and structured practice routine couldn't hurt. In addition to practicing all of my major scales every day, I engaged in sight-reading practice and began writing a chord progression for 201: write an original song.

Last night, much to Anthony's amusement, I began 236: knit a wearable scarf. I'll admit, it was quite humorous to see me speaking the directions aloud while I continually made mistakes and restarted. I practiced again today while we watched football, but achieved very little success. However, I came home, and popped in a Dr. Quinn DVD, and sure enough, I have begun to knit! My masterpiece is far from perfect, or complete for that matter, but I am proud of it!

I also began the "Couch to 5K" program. According to c25k.com, I will be happily running a 5k in just nine weeks. I am planning for my first race to be the John Conlon Memorial 5D in May. The event has been organized to honor and benefit the family of Mr. Conlon, a former math teacher the high school I graduated from. It taxes my anxiety to run a race in my hometown, but I am excited to do it. The first installment of the C25K program was a GREAT workout--I loved it! I am psyched, albeit nervous, to keep training.

C25K

My friend Tia is joining me on this adventure, which is only appropriate considering we completed a 5K together last spring :-) Goals for this week include 206: learn all of the minor scales on the piano and 128: eat vegetarian for one week. I will also keep up on the other goals I have in progress.

Snow Days :-)

I had no idea that snow days were even more enjoyable for teachers than they are for students. It gives me plenty of time to make headway in Dr. Quinn. I've also been able to make more soup! I began with a simple recipe for a Sweet Potato Soup, made creamy with some evaporated milk. But then I remembered that I had roasted some squash (one acorn and one butternut) a couple of days before, so I decided to add that in, along with some more chicken stock, a splash of apple cider, and a handful of cheddar cheese. Holy macaroni. It was stupidly delicious. I ate it while finishing my crossword puzzle of the week.

In celebration of my three-day-weekend, and my eight-month-iversary with Anthony, I made "Crab Cake Mac-and-Cheese" per his request. We both saw Rachael Ray make it on her new show and decided it would be worth a shot. Overall, it was a pretty good dish. I think I would make it again, but with some adjustments: more milk and less crust. I would also add less celery, or perhaps saute it a little longer.

Crab Cake Mac-and-Cheese

Also, Anthony gave me a car wash coupon, so if it ever stops snowing, I'll be able to cross another item off the list. :-)

Soup Number 2

Today I made my second soup: a light and healthy angel hair soup with chicken sausage. You can find the recipe here: The Family Kitchen. I added sun-dried tomato chicken sausage.

The Family Kitchen

This was so tasty! I would hesitate to call it a soup recipe, however. When you cook pasta in the soup broth, the starch naturally thickens the sauce. The pasta also continues to soak up broth until you're only left with a beautiful, light tomato sauce. I was completely fine with this. I could not believe how delicious this dish was. It is definitely a keeper!