small hands

Penne with vodka tomato cream sauce

Medium onion
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1 14 oz can of sliced tomatoes (drained)
1/4 cup of vodka
1 cup of heavy whipping cream
Red pepper flakes
8 ounces of penne

Place penne in boiling, salted water with a splash of oil. Cook until al dente or to your taste.

In a medium sized sauce pan over medium heat, heat butter and olive oil. Chop onion and saute in oil and butter, until translucent, approximately 6 minutes. Add drained tomatoes and saute until the liquid has mostly evaporated, approximately 15 minutes. Stir in vodka, heavy cream and red pepper flakes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Reduce for approximately 6 minutes, until sauce has thickened. Add penne to the sauce and mix together. Serve.




I feel really happy today.

I discovered an amazing recipe that I tried on my kids last night, and they ate it. It’s for a roast chicken with Asian spices. I followed the recipe’s technique for roasting a chicken and it came out so juicy, I will do it this way from now on.

Heat oven to 375 degrees and place the roasting pan inside the oven.

Combine:

2 teaspoons Chinese Five Spice powder
2 tablespoons of sesame oil
1 tablespoon of minced fresh gingerroot
1 tablespoon of minced garlic
1/4 cup of soy sauce

Wash the chicken, remove and discard the giblets, pat dry. Brush 1/3 of the mixture of the above inside and out of the chicken, and sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. Place the chicken on an oiled rack, wing side up, pour 1/4 cup of water into the roasting pan, place the rack inside the heated roasting pan and place in the oven. After 20 minutes, baste the chicken with 1/3 of the mixture, turn the chicken on the other side, wing side up. After 20 minutes, baste the chicken with the last 1/3 of the mixture, turn the chicken so that it’s breast side up, and cook for another 20 to 35 minutes, until the chicken juices run clear. Let the chicken rest for 10 minutes before you carve it.

The spice mixture makes the house smell amazing. Chicken sandwiches the next day taste divine. It is so self-nurturing for me to cook a good meal for myself and my children. We had the chicken with broccoli and mashed potatoes. In my whole life, I've never been inclined to eat the skin of the chicken, until last night.

I bought a copy of Bug’s Life, so while the children watched it, I was able to cook, and water the back and front yard, and feed my roses plant food. It was a very successful evening. Regrettably, the children were restless all night, my daughter waking up with growing pains and needing Tylenol, and my son tossing and turning. I feel like I got 3 hours of sleep, then I had to get us all out of the house extra early in order to make an 8:30AM court appearance 40 miles from my house.

The sprint to court always has the same four elements:

1. Racing like a madwoman to get my children where they need to be
2. Getting to court with no minutes to spare, out of breath and hyped on adrenaline
3. Getting shit talked to me by the plaintiffs’ attorney Why don’t you settle, you don’t really dispute liability do you, whine, whine, whine
4. Needing an enormous cup of coffee after the appearance is done

As Carrie said in Sex and the City "I need a cup of coffee the size of my head."