Thursday, March 25, 2010

ME SO HUNGRY!!!!

If there's one thing my family does well, it's eat. And eat. And eat. Mind you, not that healthy shit like boneless chicken breasts and steamed spinach, but chicken legs grilled and then smothered in a creamy cheesey sauce, and spinach fried in bacon fat, with a side of buttery pasta. Oh, my sister and her husband are vegetarians, so they probably have the healthiest diet of the 13 of us, but the rest? Let's just say my patriarchal grandmother was straight outta Czechoslovakia and made the absolute BEST homemade pierogies. The best. Plump mounds of perfect pasta pockets stuffed with mashed potatoes and shredded american cheese, boiled to perfection and smothered with thick cheese sauce and buttery fried onions. My father had her recipe tucked away, so a couple of years ago, my sister Donna (she of the veggie, not vegan, diet) and I started a "pierogie weekend". It was always scheduled when my husband would take a weekend to see the NHRA Drags at Maple Grov, which was usually September. It always follows a certain tradition-I arrive Friday night around 5, we eat our hoagies from Sunbury Sub Shop, then proceed to drink ourselves stupid and listen to LOUD ROCK MUSIC (usually AIC or Pearl Jam but this year I guarantee it will be KOL as we are both obsessed), fall asleep, get up Saturday, peel and boil potatoes, shred cheese, cut onions and start making the dough. It takes us about 4 hours to mix, knead, cut, stuff, and fold around 300 of those tasty things. Less if we have help. But the results, oh the results! Mrs. T's would only hope to be 1/10th the heaven of our pasta pillows. After we are done producing, we clean up the kitchen, grab our showers and relax with a bit of wine (I recommend Nissley's Naughty Marietta and so what if it's a red and we're eating pasta, worry about something else, OK? OK!) before the rest of our family settle in like locusts, to devour that goodness. I so look forward to it every year, and every year that weekend grows wings and flies away fast. It's nice to have a tradition that is yours, that you've invented (with help, of course) and that hopefully is enjoyed and remembered fondly by all.



Oh, and I'm really craving a Monte Cristo sandwich, and a Reuben, and hand cut french fries from the El Rancho. Looks like I'll bypass the Lean Cuisine for lunch and head out.

Monday, March 15, 2010

Of supposed good and bad

Would you steal $5 from your workplace? How about $10? How about $300,000? That's what my husband's secretary did, got away with it for years by forgery and false audits. Well, karma is a bitch (she didn't believe in that, she was a "good christian") and it caught up to her by giving her 2 aneurisms-like a twofer! Once she was in the hospital, a fellow employee went into her computer to do payroll, and discovered the theft. It's the same old story, over and over-people steal and think they can get away with it, they constantly try to rationalize it in their own mind. After a while, the stress builds, they make mistakes, and get taken out by some small, seemingly insignificant entity. It's the fates way of saying "gotcha!".
www.wnep.com/wnep-numb-former-sewer-clerk-stole-thousands,0,2580598.story

PS Beware the Ides of March, but only if your name is Julius.