Mac and Cheese Delicious Soup

I found this recipe and then made it awesome! It is also done in under 30 minutes, so that isn't terrible either!

1 1/3 c. uncooked elbow macaroni
1/2 pound spicy or mild uncooked italian sausage (or without for you non meat eaters)
Olive oil
1/2 sweet onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1/2 c. flour (or gluten free flour for you gluten free eaters)
4 c. chicken broth
1 1/2 c. milk
3 c. cheese - mix what you want, I used colby jack, but you can get fancy
1/4 c. white wine
Kosher salt and Ground pepper to taste - you want to flavor each level
1/2 c. croutons (flavored or not) beaten to a pulp

1. Bring a medium sauce pan to a boil. Add the macaroni and salt and cook till almost al dente. Drain and rise. Save 1/4 c. of the the pasta water.

2. Chop the onion and the carrot. If you have a food processor, use it, you won't tear up cutting the onions. But if you want more of a hearty taste, chop it yourself. Cavemen did not have food processors.

3. Grate the cheese. You can get fancy here and add all sorts of cheese, because cheese is awesome and makes everything taste better. Be creative, I wasn't, I just used colby jack. It was still great. Also, the original recipe called for 1 1/2 cup, but apparently that wasn't enough for me, and the 3 cups was not over powering and seemed like the perfect amount.

4. In a 4 quart saucepan, add about 1/4 c olive oil (just guessing here, I just poured in a healthy amount) and cook the veggies until soft (4 to 5 minutes), flavor with salt and pepper, half way through add the white wine. Also here, you should pour yourself a glass of the white wine, because if you are not going to drink it, you shouldn't cook with it. Plus you just chopped a lot of vegetables and deserve the reward. So cook with some, drink some more.  Add the sausage and brown. If the pan gets dry, add more olive oil or wine. Once the sausage is cooked, add the flour, stirring for 2 minutes. Gradually stir in the chicken broth and remaining pasta water and bring to a boil. Stir the whole time to deglaze the pan and thicken the stock. Bring to a boil and cook for 6 to 7 minutes so it thickens.

5. Beat the croutons. It is fun. More so if you've had a bad day and you can pretend it is your bosses/spouses/coworkers/random persons face. We all need an outlet, even if it is stale bread. And take another sip of wine, or gulp, which ever you prefer.

6. Reduce heat to low, should be thick and smell like meat (and if you don't eat meat, the original recipe didn't have meat, so don't include it, but then you should also reduce the amount of flour to 1/4 c., and if you don't like sausage, I think bacon would be great too, which was my original plan, until I saw the sausage at the grocery store). Add in the macaroni, milk, cheese and salt and pepper and stir until everything melts. Let it set on low to barely there heat for 15-20 minutes. Very low heat, you can even turn the heat off and let it sit there. It will thicken and become glorious (I used this time to clean the dishes, but leave them there if you have someone else to clean them and just enjoy your wine and accomplishment). Turn the heat up after the 15-20 minutes, bring to a quick boil and then turn off heat. Sounds strange, but it made a huge difference.

7. Dish out and garnish with beaten up croutons.

8. Enjoy with more wine.

Yes, but it's a Parrot!

I have always known that I have a mortal fear of snakes and now apparently I have the same tolerance for parrots. I found this out the other day while I was working at a clients house. I've never been a fan of parrots, and actually I don’t discriminate against any bird. I pretty much dislike all shapes and forms that they come in, but specifically parrots remind me of some freaky prehistoric era leftover that looks like it is going to attack you with it’s freakish beak, beady eyes and velociraptor claws. I went to Maui with a girl friend back in 2001 and she insisted that we stop off at a road side tourist trap where you take pictures with 15 parrots and needless to say, I stayed in the car while she posed with the little flying freaks. I also think people who own birds are weird (sorry, I do) and I always request full disclosure when entering a house with birds.

With that said, I was not prepared for this client’s house. The whole reason for going to the house made it a bit of an interesting day; we were going to inventory and gather information on a deceased client’s estate for probate. It is really strange to rummage through a dead persons belongings, even more so, to do so in their house. So I was a bit precarious about going in the first place. Despite the fact that I deal with death on a daily basis, dealing with it behind a desk is much easier than actually being surrounded by it. As soon as I entered the house we were greeted with the loudest, ear bleeding squawk that no one should ever be privy to hear, and in a matter of zero to three seconds, I lost my cool calm exterior and transformed into a tense paranoid idiot. Shortly thereafter the daughter entered the room holding a long stick with the ugliest, scariest, loudest, green ball of freakish feathers perched on it. Still squawking.

Daughter: “Oh, he’ll be fine, we just woke him up. Would you guys like to pet him, but becareful he may bite, he bites me all the time.”

My head: “Get that thing away from me.”

Bird: “I smell fear and will chase you around the house. Sqqquuuuaaawwwkkk”

Apparently the “home office” where we needed to gather documents also served as the birds room. It did not have a cage, but rather roamed freely around the entire house. Needless to say, my productivity was at an all time low mainly because the parrot decided to be my shadow. I would move to one side of the room, the bird would too. I would move into the living room, the bird would too. No matter where I went, the bird followed. It would also climb up the chairs (biting on the chair and using its velociraptor claws) to get on top of the table so he could have eye contact with me. By all definitions, this bird was stalking me. He probably got some sick satisfaction out of repeating “hello!” and watching me jump and run each time he did. When the bird was not near me, I was constantly looking over my shoulder waiting for it to sneak around the corner only to chase me into another part of the house. I participated in this song and dance for almost 2 hours and on our way out, he bit my boss’ toe and chased us out the door.

By the time I got back into the office my chest hurt from being so tense. My boss, despite being viciously attacked, thought the thing was cute and said that she wished we could have a bird or a dog in our office. I kindly and rather quickly suggested that a dog would be much more enjoyable and less stressful.

30 Little Things: 3: Something That Really Bugs Me

If something bad happens in your life, how do you explain it? “Such is life...” “Dang it, why was I such an idiot....” “Dang it, why was that person such an idiot...” or the good ole stand by of shaking your fist in the air? What really chaps my hide, or really bugs me, is when someone says "It’s a blessing in disguise." Really? A blessing? No, I don't think so. Something bad happening is never a blessing. Ever.

And now on to my soap box:

Things happen in life. Bad things happen to good people. Good people do bad things. Life just sometimes happens. But why do some people call the bad times a blessing? um, so you're saying that I should thank someone or some higher power for tragedy, strife and/or heartache? No, I’m not buying it. We live in a culture of "dog eat dog" and "survival of the fittest." So when something bad happens, you don’t just go stagnate and say thanks, you adjust your life accordingly and venture down a new path. We all hope that the new path will bring us luck and happiness, and often times it does, but that is no reason to count your pits as blessings. I don’t think I will ever look back on my hard times and say "gee I am so glad I went through that because it got me this and that." No, I had to pick myself up, deal with emotions that I never wanted to deal with, and then begin to look for a better tomorrow down other avenues. Who is to say that if tragedy didn’t strike that I wouldn’t be where I am now or know the people I know today. If there really is a master plan and we are all just walking down a predetermined path, then really, nothing is a blessing, it is just life.

I had a job in LA that I hated. I had been there for 2.5 years and couldn't stand to work there another day. But I bit the bullet and dealt with the bureaucracy and the bs but I was also looking for another job. They called me in on a Thursday and "let me go." I already had 3 interviews lined up for the next day and had planned on taking the day off to go to them but I refuse to think of that example as a blessing in disguise because I would have never left that job without having one lined up. Plus I didn't get any of those jobs and I am still recovering; I had to adjust my life accordingly and make the best out of a bad situation. What I do count as blessings are my amazing family who took me in with open arms, support and unconditional love; my good friends who stood by me and provided an ear and a shoulder; and that I am healthy and happy.

Maybe it is just an everyday cliche that people say to make the hard times seem better, I mean there are so many ("what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger" is another doozy) and it is so easy to get caught in a self-indulged pity party. And maybe we do need some kind of rationale that will help bring us out of the doom and gloom and into the light for the sake of our sanity. I have no idea. All I know is that things in life have happened. Some good, some bad, some I caused, some other people had a hand in. I am not going to thank my lucky stars for the tears, the red in my bank account, and the pain. I’ve seen things and felt things that I hope I never experience again and I absolutely do not look back on any of the bad stuff as blessings.

(For background and to see what I have done so far on the 30 Little Things project click here. Also follow Home Sweet Sarah's 30 Things, since I got the idea from her)