What's cooking

It’s been over a year since I had made my chicken noodle soup.  This week seemed like the best time to bring it back.  We had a stomach bug hit our house recently.  We were all just able to start eating again when I decided to make it.  I’m a big believer in chicken noodle soup being a cure all that ails you.  It reminds me of being a kid and my mom giving me flat sprite when I had a belly ache so now anytime I drink a sprite it sends me back to being a sick as a child.  Chicken noodle does the same and is like a mental band aid to what makes you feel ill.  The way I make is it simple by comparison to a real “homemade” soup.  I’m a cook that has to be able to cook fast.  While I have chicken breast defrosting I begin prepping my vegetables. I chop up a single onion which will cause me to cry but it’s one of my favorite vegetable to add with any cooked meal. Then I julienne cut a cup of carrots to put in the soup; more for the color than the taste.  The last veggie I add is celery.  I don’t eat it often but the smell and crispness as I chop it is almost refreshing.  I take the easy way out and add chicken broth to a huge pot.  Now my mom would do something crafty by boiling a whole chicken all day to make a broth.  This is too much for me.  I add a lot of broth which is a personal preference that I like soup to be soup and not thick like as sauce.  I bring it to a boil and toss in the vegetables and seasoning.  I dice up the defrosted chicken which is my least favorite part.  Cutting meat has never been my favorite maybe it’s the feeling of slimy things.  I let it all boil and simmer while the chicken and vegetables cook all together.  This all starts to give the house the best aroma of warmth.  If a smell could make you feel wrapped up in a comfy blanket next to a fire place that’s what my chicken noodles does for me.  To me the last step is the most important.  The one thing I have to steal from my mom’s way of cooking soup is to add not just any noodle but Reames egg noodles.  This means I’m in the home stretch and so close to a warm bowl in front of me.  After another twenty minute wait I can finally enjoy the comforting taste of my simple labor of love.    I can’t believe it had been so long since I treated myself to something so wholesome and good.  It almost made my illness worth the pain to enjoy something that made me feel so much better. 

reflection

I started this project with a mild sense of dread.  It reminded me to much of journaling which has never been my favorite.  At first it seemed easy to type for ten minutes.  The hard part I found out was coming up with topics to write about.  I felt like I was just babbling constantly.  I discovered that even though I was free writing by the third week my thoughts seemed clearer as I wrote.  I liked the ease of free writing as long as I was inspired by the topic.  Therein lies my dislike of the project. I had the hardest time finding topics so I just wrote about everything around me.  I don’t know if I’ve changed that much as a writer.  When I’m writing a first draft it does make me stop and free write all my thoughts then go back later to edit.  I wouldn’t say I’ve seen a significant change in my writing.  My average length went up to around 350-375 in ten minutes.  Again, that depended on the topic.  It truly was my greatest weakness through the whole project.  I think I did every topic suggestion that my classmates put on Black Board.  Now I can’t say it would make it any better but maybe at the beginning of the project everyone should post ten topic ideas.  It wouldn’t matter if some people duplicated topics there would be plenty of ideas for people like me who are topic challenged.  Over all it was a good experience with some challenges along the way. 

freewrite week 6 day 7

My last blog of the week finds me oblivious to any real ideas to write about.  So in the absence of idea I’m choosing to write about a clear head.  I’m one of those people whose mind seems to be continuously on.  I would give anything for an off switch sometimes.  It’s my worst enemy in the middle of the night.  I’m fine if I wake up and try hard not to think about anything I can usually go back to sleep.  If a single thought comes in my head it’s all over.  I then spend hours with my brain rattling on and on about what I need to do the next day, did I forget to lock the doors, did I just hear the baby and so on and so forth.  This usually goes into hyper drive during the day.  I wish for the clearness of just nothing.  I think this is why I enjoy books and movies because I can get lost in it without thinking about anything else.  I can actually be so engrossed when watching a movie that it’s one of the rare times I don’t think about anything else.  Even though I have so many thoughts going through my head it doesn’t make it any easier to think of things to write about.  Eventually I feel like I’m just blabbing about nothing important.  I think having a clear mind would be more helpful.  I’m great at multitasking but I feel my head is full of tasks flying at me all the time.  It would be nice with a clear head to have one thing at a time be the focus in my head.  I know it would save my anxiety level if I didn’t worry about all the things my brain is telling me to do.  It takes great work for me to have peace of mind in the head.  Usually I have to be outside and quite.  I think trying to meditate would kill my head.  It makes me laugh with the thought of trying to shut my thoughts off.  I’ve comes to terms with my unclear mind but it doesn’t mean I don’t long for peace and clarity. 

Freewrite week 6 day 6

I have gotten really into the show Catfish.  It has to do with online relationships where people are being untruthful about who they are.  This isn’t very surprising to me because right after high school I got big into chat rooms and talking to people online.  I was drawn into talking to people who knew nothing about me.  It really gives you so much license to be anyone you wanted.  Now people are so technology save’ that they can do anything.  They take other peoples pictures and create profiles to talk to other people.  They lie about their gender, age, and sometimes sexual orientation.  It really makes you think more about how much people lie.  Is it because we are becoming so disconnected in our lives?  People spend more time dealing with technology and social media then in the real world.  I know that I was a victim more than once of online relationships.  I can honestly say that they didn’t know who I really was.  I was me but more of what they wanted me to be than myself.  So I can relate to the TV show and the traps that people can get into or ones we place ourselves in.  The pitfalls to some of the stories on Catfish are because people trust too much of what people tell them to be 100% truthful.  I like to quote House in situations like that, “Everyone lies.”  My partner and I look at each other and ask would we wait years to meet each other?  Nope it would never happen.  These people seem to be okay talking by computer or phone for years.  If I fell in love with someone I wouldn’t be able to invest that much time without knowing what they were like in real life.  Then there is the bullying side of Cat-fishing where people become someone else to hurt another person.  It also shows the addiction people have with creating fake profiles and online lives and how they can’t give that up.  They would rather live in this make believe word than in the real world.

freewrite week 6 day 5

I’m sick of people being sick.  We have been hit hard at our house this year.  We have had three months of illnesses on and off again.  We had the flu, stomach virus, colds, and random fevers.  I know that when having a family it comes with the territory.  This world has everything in it where ever we go.  I get that.  I used to work at a daycare where the parents would get jumpy if we posted a child sick in our classroom.  They forget that they all worked at the hospital and probably exposed their children to more than we did at the daycare.  Again sickness is ever where.  I get more frustrated at my ex now that he has a new wife and she has two kids.  Their family has shared more illnesses with us than anyone else.  We usually find out after the fact that they were sick.  It’s even scarier because my ex spent the last month keeping no food down and spent a week in the hospital without finding what was wrong.  Then two days ago our son started throwing up and running a fever.  I still think there is a chance that it’s some awful virus.  It doesn’t matter how many times I clean or wash everything in the house it’s only a matter of time before every illness is passed from every individual in the house.  I’m over the temperature checks, the doctor visits, and bodily fluids.  I know that I’m not the only one because it seems like its hit a lot of people this year.  I see weekly on facebook that friends are going through all the same things.  I’m more excited to get to spring and summer when I usually have to deal with allergies and nothing else.  That I can deal with because it’s easily fixed with a daily medication.  This all may be due to the fact that I’m not much of a winter person either.  I like fall and spring weather wise.  So when you attach all the sickness it makes me hate winter even more. 

freewrite week 6 day 4

Being a twin is over rated.  I spent my life with everyone telling me how awesome it would be and how much they wish they had a twin like me.  My sister and I were fine as kids and always got along.  When we moved to Springfield we slowly grew apart as we got older.  We still hung out with the same people but never really got each other.  Since then we have gone through fazes of being close or just being sisters.  I helped her get out of her first marriage when she was being abused.  She helped as much she could when I was leaving my ex.  We went through a very rough time a couple of years ago.  We spent almost a year without speaking.  We both ended up pregnant at the same time.  Again I hear the same people saying how cool that would be, but when you’re not talking or spending time anywhere near your family it take the coolness out of both of us being pregnant.  Right before we had the babies we started talking without really talking.  Eventually things were okay enough that I even starting watching her son while she was at work.  This all worked till she couldn’t pay me.  Money between family members is always a problem.  Things got back to normal after I stopped watching him.  Then like an idiot a year later I started watching him again when she got a different job.  How stupid was I to think this was going to be any different than the first time. Granted it was more than just her not paying me consistently for watching him.  I never knew when she was bringing him even when I begged her to communicate with me more so I could plan around watching him because I was going to school full time as well.  It lasted almost six months and I didn’t even tell her I couldn’t watch him anymore.  In true family style nothing was ever said to me that my mom and dad were going to watch him from now on.  Nope, the last day time I got any information from her she said she didn’t have any appointments that day.  Then I never heard about it again.  I see no benefits to having a twin.  She’s just a person who looks just like me but is nothing like me.

freewrite week 6 day 3

I’m totally addicted to reality TV.  I have been for years.  My interests have changed in the shows I watch.  I was big into survivor when it first started based just on the fact I loved the idea of it all.  Then I just stopped watching because it was more staged then real.  I never ever got into the bachelor.  Call me crazy but I could just tell how ridiculous the idea was to find true love on reality TV.  After so many years of reality shows I think it is proven to split more couples up then keep them together.  I was so excited when Jessica Simpson and Nick Lache’ split up.  I called it years before it happened.  I love reality cooking shows and music shows.  I gave up on American Idol after the fifth season I think.  I just couldn’t take it anymore.  To me even now the talent on their show is more like a bad talent show compared to the voice or the X factor.  With all the judges changing places on American Idol you would think that it only has a couple years left anyways.  Or one could hope.  It’s not my proudest moment to admit my love for everything Jersey shore but I got addicted early when it came out.  It was like having a second family who was crazy and filled with drama.  I even watch Jwoww and Snooki show where she just had her baby.  I like the fact that they have changed so much in five years.  I’m still holding out for Ron and Sam to have a Jersey Shore wedding.  It seems that we are only years away from a Blade Runner situation or a Hunger Games.  Watching peoples pain will someday be normal.  Reality TV already shows us people’s emotional pain and sometimes even verbal abuse.  Hell’s kitchen would be a great example.  It almost makes it even more addicting to watch Chef Ramsee torture and abuse the contestants.  Then there are shows like ridiculousness that show internet clips of people getting hurt.  It reminds me of the show Jack Ass that causes so much controversy when it first appeared.  If it came out now it wouldn’t be that big of a deal.  Crazy to think how used to things we become that we don’t care anymore.