What's next?

New year...New Dreams. I am realy hoping to go back to school this year but we will see how that is gonna happen with a 10 month old and a newly laid off husband. I had my chistmas party and let me tell you....it was HUGE. I was expecting amybe 40-45 people but I am sure we got well over 60 people! I am so glad I have a tendency to over-buy and over-cook when it comes to parties because I always have this fear that so many people are going to show up and there will not be enough food, well... that kinda happened christmas eve except there was enough food. I also had a new years eve party but I made sure only to invite 15-20 people this time. I was told several times over the holiday that I should open a bakery or a restaurant. That has been on my mind alot but I am just scared that it will fail and I feel that I still have so much more to learn in the culinary aspect. Yes, for my age I do know alot but still not enough that it can guarentee me success in the real world. I have warned my husband that I will be trying out new recipes over the next couple of months. But first, what continent should I start with? I am thinking about doing a cooking world tour. While I think about this tonight I will start with good old beef fajitas.

Oh how time flies...

It has been a log time since I last signed in. Well my life has been very busy. Our tenant has moved in and so far it is going well. My husband got layed off (just like millions of other americans) last week. At first it was very depressing but we believe that this might be a blessing in disguise because my husband has alot of things that he has to do at home ("honey do list") and has had a small side buissness of car sales that he has not been able to keep up due to his job. He has also been helping alot with the baby now that he is home. My hopes are that things will get better. Tiger Woods infidelity is all over the news now and I am growing tired of it. I think not so much that the same story is annoying but that I feel embarrased and sad for him and his wife. This is a very private, emberrasing moment in their lives that unfortunatley has to be shared with the rest of the world. I feel very sad every time I see him on TV because I really thought he was not the type to betray his wife. I am sure he is remorseful and a good person deep inside. Our office christmas party was tonight. It was very fun and my daughter really enjoyed it. I also had alot of fun. I am getting prepared for a christmas party that I am planning to have despite my husbands lay off. I have been saving some money over the year for christmas expenses. I went shopping the day after thanksgiving and brought everything that I wanted. I was the first one in line at Sears at 3:00 am but everything went smoothly. I also brought a Kitchen Aid mixer. I absolutly love it! I am really feeling the christmas spirit!

Finding the perfect tenant

The last 3 days have been very fustrating and hard. This past Sunday I spent about 7 hours (yes, 7 hrs!) cleaning our other home which we rented out for about 9 months. I have been interviewing tenants the last 2 days and boy is that hard. I interviewed about 6 people. Some of them were the perfect candidates but did not have all the money needed up front others just seemed too risky. I finally found a single mother of one who was really hoping we would give her a chance. She has a stable work history and good renting history and she seemed like the only one who REALLY was interested in renting the house. Well, we will see how that goes. Did I mention that I met an author last week who is writing a biography on the police men who shot the UT snipper? Well, he came into the office and we began chatting about how he had a near death experience and how that made him live his life to the fullest and how the UT snipper was actually his scout leader and the first 2 people killed were people he stayed with because his parents had gone out of town 1 week before the killing and so they babysitted him. Well he is now writing their biography. How interesting! I am very tired now because I have had a long week and tomorrow I have a school play to attend and I have to meet up with our new tenant.

Should the flu vaccine be mandatory??

I was so tired today when I got home from work that I did not even bother to make dinner. I just made some bean and chorizo tacos...I call it brinner (breakfast and dinner), my husband loves it. We had a locum tenums at work today (a temp. doctor) since my regular doc is on vacation. I actually enjoyed working with her but since it was her first day, she was kinda slow at learning the ropes around the office which meant that I had to work a little harder. I did not mind it but I was really tired by the time I got home. I need to start making new side dishes for dinner. I will think about that later. I have been feelin' kinda down lately mostly because watching all these moms bring their kids into the office makes me want to stay at home with my baby. I want to watch her grow and learn. It makes me sad just thinking about it. Change of subject: When I was a the gym this morning I was watching the news and saw that some nurse in New York is suing New York because the hospital she works at is making it mandatory that she get the H1N1 vaccine or she would lose her job. Personally I think that the city is correct in making it mandatory that she get the vaccine as they are taking measures to protect the general public by vaccinating the people involved in the first line of care. She said something that made me kinda angry. I am not against "free speech and rights" but sometimes the goverment knows what is best for the public and some of these people now adays are against everything and anything that the goverment even suggest. What that nurse said was "I am bothered that the goverment wants to tell me what to do and what to inject my body with". I think that if I got sick and I had to go to a hospital, I would like my caretakers to be immunized against something this contagious. I think that this nurse is just saying this because being against the goverment is "what is in". Just like women going "all natural" and not shaving armpit hair and letting their BO run rampid! I understand that it is her body and she should decide what goes into it and all but if she is working with the ill patients who might die because she decided not to get immunized and she happens to get sick (god forbid) maybe she should consider a different carreer or atleast a different area of practice. I recieved my flu vaccine because I know I work in an enviroment where alot of our patients are babies and elderly people, not to mentiont that I have a baby of my own! Enough of my ranting and raving. Well, tomorrow is Friday and I am already thinking of what I have to make for dinner. I might just order pizza or something. I am also thinking of making a budget for my diet food. Grocery prices are actually going down!

Gumbo

I made gumbo today. I did not realize how time consuming it was to make roux. It took me 45 min of CONSTANT stirring to get my roux a copper color. I liked the gumbo and so did my family. My mother and grandmother came over today and helped me with the kids while I made dinner. I also had to give my 8 month old her vaccines tonight which I really was not looking foward to but she actually did not cry that much. An update on my hot flahes: I think that they are gone. It was really ugly and muggy outside today wich made my morning hot flashes worse but by the afernoon they were gone. On another note, there is this guy at work who keeps telling me that I am Mrs. Honduras and that I should wear my sash. I don't think that I look like her but he calls me that because of a photo that was posted on our company website (centralfamilypractice.com), maybe I should take it down because I do not want to give a false image of myself to future patients. It does not bother me when people compare me to a beauty queen! Anyways, enough babling about that. it is 10:30 pm and I have just made a sopa de frijoles (I was in the mood for it). It came out really good!

Long days

This flu season has been really busy! I have worked non-stop the last 2 days. So many little kids and adults with ILI (influenza like illness). Although my job keeps me on my feet...I love what I do. All that running around did not slow me down at home though. I still managed to make a good chicken cordon blue. I asked my husband to rate it and he gave it 5 stars out of five (I think he just said that so I won't feel bad after a long day at work). I still have to go on recipe zaar and rate it. I think that I will give it a 4 only because the outside did not brown as well as I would have liked it to with the panko that was reccomended. Today at work I also met the daughter of a nationally famous person. I had to draw her blood but unlucky for me, I had just recovered from the flu (I had to get it someday since I see so many flu patients) and I still had hot flushes. I was sweating like a pig while I was drawing her blood and she probably thought that I was really nervous and I wasn't. I was a little embarrased and explained to her my embarrasing situation. Oddly enough, I work at a place that is sorrounded my menopausal women and they are totally comprehensive about my non-menopausal hot flashes. I feel an odd connection with them now. I was sick for about 5 days and then unfortunately alot of my co-workers all got sick from the same thing. I feel another hot flash coming on so I guess I my blogging will have to wait for tomorrow!

Frumpy Pastries

I tried my hand at making puff pastry but that did not turn out so well. I did not add the required 1 lb. of butter! I read the recipe wrong and added 2 table spoons of butter but forgot the pound. I am getting my baking recipes from Williams and Sonoma, the essentials of Baking. It is fabulous. I reccomend it to those who feel pretty comfortable baking already and not to beginners. I also made a pound cake from this book today and it turned out great! I am going to make a sopa de frijoles con huevos just like my grandmother's, will post later.