Sweet Potato Canneloni

This makes enough for 6-8 rolls depending on how full you make them. You can also stuff shells with the mixture if desired.

1 pkg. Trader Joe's Fresh Pasta Sheets
8oz ricotta salata
2 tbl crumbled goat cheese
1/2 c grated parm/regggiano (any grated combo will do)
one med/lge sweet potato
1/2 small onion (a little shaved fennel with the onion adds more flavor)
2 eggs or equivelent egg substitute
Tomato Sauce of choice (something fresher tasting will be best)
1 tbl fresh basil (or Trader Joe's frozen cube!)
Veggie of chicken broth
S/P to taste

Dice the potato, onion and fennel (if used). Roast in the 410 oven till golden and soft about 20 minutes. Let cool slightly and add the cheeses and eggs, basil and S/P to taste. I used my food process but you could get it mixed well with a mixer, just might want to cut the veggies up more.
I place some of the tomato sauce and broth in the bottom of my baking dish, about 1/2". You want the consistency to be that of a thick tomato soup. I then take the pasta sheet in my hand, place about 2-2 1/2 tbl of the mixture in the middle and wrap it up. Place it seam side down in the baking dish. After all the canneloni are rolled add abit more "brothed down" sauce to the tops (more like just moistening the tops), sprinkle with more grated cheese and bake at 350 for about 20 minutes.

Trader Joe's

Before posting this next recipe I just want to say that TJ is the best thing in the world! Moving would really be determined by having a TJ within driving distance. The "processed" food is better than some fresh and the fresh items are often unique. There are so many items that make cooking on the fly so very easy:
No Cook Fresh Pasta Sheets
Frozen cubes of fresh parsley, basil and cilantro
Multitudes of excellent tomato sauces
Ricotta Salata
Buffalo Mozzarella
Frozen fish (the Marinated Ahi is soooooo good!

Christmas

What is Christmas? Is it a time of year? Is it Jesus' Birthday? Is it a feeling that really should be with us all year? Unlike Mabel, I have long since outgrown the need to count gifts, not sure that it ever was part of my nature. I do like picking out the right thing for someone, regardless of the price...just the right item.
We shouldn't need Christmas as an excuse to get together as a family. We shouldn't need Christmas to prompt us to be nicer to each other.
One of my best Christmas' as an adult was the year in Fresno when someone left us a tree on our doorstep. I had had more than a few years of pulling in someone's tree from the trash bins and celebrating Christmas after Jessica returned from Vermont. As a child I can remember waiting for the snow and having it start just before leaving for Midnight Mass. There was something about taking our naps and then getting up for Midnight Mass. When we would come home it was obvious that Santa has been there. I learned later that my dad would come home ahead of us (must have been on foot) and set up the gifts. It seemed real.
I don't recall my age when I stopped "believing" but I am sure my brothers had something to do with it. My dad will always be Santa as far as I am concerned.
So, remember that Christmas is best celebrated with loved ones and that $1 gift thoughtfully chosen means more than a $100 gift chosen for show. Love each other, smile and give what you can to the planet and to mankind.

Fall

Talking season here, not the other!!

Today was one of those wonderful fall days. Leaves crinkling on the ground, cool breeze and clear skies. As the sun rolls toward the west the eastern skies turn dark. The color is beyond a grey or navy, it is a mix that is dark, bottomless. The clouds absorb all light around them yet the ground glows. The cool 64F is dropping rapidly, night is claiming reign. Tonight, frost will be dancing along the roof tops and lawns alike. We will be snuggled in our comfy home, candles and Christmas tree aglow, (it seems like something like "let it snow" should go here but I have not lost my sanity yet!) let the night play because the sun will soon chase the chill away!

Sammie Girl

Sammie gets a little intense and excited sometimes, she loves all creatures, large and small!

I am not sure what she is thinking......

jumping in

I have my resume all ready to go. My friend told me that next year she will be making $37/hr!! I am currently attempting to hire a REGISTERED nurse for $26 and I make less than $29 as the administrator. Now, Arc thinks they have made great headway cause they bumped us up by $5 a little better than a year ago....they just don't understand that nurses are not like the rest of them. That bump up still left us on the bottom when compared to our competitors.

Our population is getting older all the time. Their medical needs are becoming more and more intense! My nurses work like hell and we risk lawsuits from families because we did not think about every little thing that could potentially cause harm to this non-verbal individual. I love my consumers but this job and its' responsibilities weigh healvily on me.

It reflects my whole "mid-life crisis". My aging mother is failing. What am I going to do when she can no longer move herself around?? I look at her and see my future? How far will I get? Will I ever have a time when I am all I have to worry about? I want my play time while I can still enjoy it!!!

Changes and Therapy

Today was party day for the consumers. Something I was looking forward to. Started out well enough, good CDC seminar at the Public Health Department. When I go to work though things quit looking so great. Noreen, my east county nurse for 5+ years, is leaving us to go on to a better paying job with better benefits.

I know where she is coming from, I think about it all the time....Retirement. I just recently decided to increase my 401 share here, 5% to 8% that way the 3% "raise" we got will just disappear. Arc increased their generosity too, they will match 50% up to 5% of our $$. As Nurse Administrator I make a great big $28.89/hr, $5006 a month. The lowest starting range for DHS is $5265-5649 a month....with 2/two 3% raises guaranteed in 2007. Checkout some of the other great benies at: http://www.dhs.ca.gov/lnc/pubnotice/jobs/default.htm

DHS works 4 days a week once you are trained, just one week vacation at 6 months but they get more holidays than we do and more vacation time overall. Noreen said that it took a few months to get through the system. I have stayed at Arc for many reasons but as I go toward the tail end of my career I would like more financial freedom and less responsibility. My flexible schedule has been working against me these days and after training is over with and I start my 4 day work week I will have a whole day free to do Mabel stuff which would be better than trying to work it in and having people call me while I am trying to get her out of the car.

So I am looking toward the future with hope and trying to embrace change. I am sad too but big brown eyes were waiting for me when I got home. I am a happier person with my furry friend next to me

Sorrow

The loss of a love one really does not ever go away completely. It often stays in the back of your mind. You always expect that your parent will die but siblings and friends are harder. The relationships that exist with these individuals also affects our memories.

I dream of my dad and talk to him in difficult times. I do the same with my sister, Joan. Poor Pat was so devastated when I went to see the movie with Susan Sarandon...I think it was "Step Mom". Sarandon's character was so much like Joan and dying of cancer. I bawled. I still can't watch that movie. I have had a couple of intense dreams as well where I am with Joan (and usually dad too)and when I wake up I am sobbing. This morning was one of those. I went to a place where Joan was, not sure if dad was there. Mom was and I walked in walking toward Joan even though I knew Mom would be offended that I went to Joan first. When I hugged Joan it was like I knew that she was not really in my world and when she looked at me her eyes were sad with the same truth. Wake up, sobbing.

As I told the old lady yesterday, life has plenty of sadness. If that is what you dwell on then that is your life. But there is re-birth and beauty around every corner, you just have to be ready.

Dad

I can never say enough about my dad. I miss him so much even though it has been over 20 years since his death. He would help all the little old widows with their chores, people in town thought he was so sweet. No one (except my mother) ever said a bad word against him. He loved all of his children equally, and even my half sister was no different for him, you would never have known that she was not his own.

The Colomb family was like that, at least the ones I knew. Aunt Dot was rather taciturn but always kind. Aunt Gladys was the independent spinster sister, never married, always doing for others, also never one to say something bad about someone else. The Colomb's were readers, guess we know who Jessica takes after. They would gather in the living room and read with sparse lighting. My mother hated this, she and her mother both loved TV. I can remember Grandma Ploof talking to her TV cause it was fairly new to her by the time she got the first one, my mother planned her day around daytime TV shows.

Dad's best display of humor came when he retired and he got a big cash payout. He went and bought a used car. He had it painted to match mom's!! That started years of dad trading for a car off the lot that would be the same color as the special order one that mom had purchased, that way it always looked like she copied him instead of the other way around. God love him, he sure did deserve a laugh or two.

I can still see the towel rack in our horribly ugly bathroom. Mom and I could use the "new" towels but dad was relegated to these threadbare rags. He never complained. My mom gives you $$ but she definitely holds it against you, doesn't want it paid back but you are going to pay for asking for help. My dad always made it clear that it was a loan and the payback was expected, but it was never a guillotine over your head.

I learned alot from my dad and I always hope that I am more like him then my mother. Sometimes I see myself being more bitchy like her and I try to step back. When things are particularily tough with Mabel, I talk to dad and hope that, someplace out there, he can hear me. He was such a ray of sunshine on this earth for so many people.

Jail is looking better everyday........

I never really understand why Mabel (my mother) loves to make my life so miserable. On days when I try to be nice she makes even bigger attempts to make me crazy. Today was Jeanel's cookie party so I brought home a bunch of cookies. I already seperated out the chocolate ones I made, cause she said they were like the dark chocolate candy and she does not like dark chocolate. So I set her up to put away the rest. I did not do the dishes until late and so she comes into the kitchen and asks for a glass from the clean dishes (while I am still cleaning them)..."oh, it's warm.....well I guess that's ok....I have to put ice in it." I just started laughing, like what else could you do? I will preface this with the fact that she has been whiny most of the evening, oh my feet swell, this is wrong....she is 90 for chissakes!! What does she think is going to happen?? She is getting more whiny so I tell her if she wants a cold glass she should rinse it and put it in the freezer like I do. Most of the time she just puts ice in the glass and takes one or two pills and then dumps out the water. No wonder we have to dump ice every day and sometimes twice a day.

Despite a week from hell looming in front of me I am setting time away on Tuesday to take her to the foot doctor and hopefully the hearing aid people. But she knows I have a bad week coming so let's see what she can come up with to make me even crazier.

So still no jail but there are days, maybe I could work in the kitchen......

Chocolate Pepercino Crackle Cookies

I love Vestri Pepercino Chocolates. Creamy, yet that delicate warmth from the pepper. Here is the cookie version:

Cream together: 1c butter, softened, 1c granulated sugar, 1 t. Vanilla, 1/8 t. finely mashed chipolte pepper in sauce, 1/8 t. ground cumin, 1/8 t. red pepper
once "fluffy" add 2 large eggs and beat to fluffy and light.

Mix together 2c flour, 1c Ghiardelli Ground Sweetened Chocolate Powder, 1t. salt, 1t. baking soda. Add slowly to butter and egg mixture, beating till thoroughly mixed. Add 1 bag Ghiardelli 60% bittersweet chocolate pieces. Let dough sit in fridge for 1h.

Form into 1" balls and roll in granulated sugar that has been lightly sprinkled with red pepper (this is to your tolerance, start low and add if needed). Cook at 350 for about 12-14 minutes. Remove to cool and enjoy!!

California Dreamin'??

Lots of folks think that California is one of those magical places....today was not one of those days where I felt that way. I went to Anaheim for a seminar. The seminar was great, which was good.
The morning commute was not bad but the place where we were is in the heart of the Disneyland commercial zone, hotels and bad restaurants. Sure would have liked a Ciro's sandwich and wine!! So bad food and several hours of sitting were topped off by a drive back to SD starting at 3:30p....... the northern part was not bad but from Oceanside to La Mesa is was mostly 5-10 mph. Funny how you can become so fatigued doing nothing.
Finally made it home and dragged Sam out for her walk...well she needed no dragging really!
It also struck me that except for the 4 lane local streets, I could have been in SD or LA and not known the difference.....not like knowing that you are in Assisi because of the color of the building or Siena because of the Pala plaques...or even gritty Naples. Nothing much stands out in southern California. Tourist traps and corporations, not many artisan stores...you really have to look for those. Don't get me wrong, the weather and plant life, farmers market fruits and veggies help make it better. Sometimes I think I would like to live elsewhere, maybe I can take all my consumers with me!!