New Kitchen Toy!

I am a big fan of cast iron skillets, for savory and sweet items alike. A few examples of previous uses:

Deep dish pizza, apple pie, and smothered pork chops are a few regulars with the CIS. The last two photos, well, I enjoy posting ridiculous "customer images" for things I've purchased on Amazon. You should try it sometime, it's quite entertaining.

Anyway, one of the problems with cooking for two is that sometimes you wind up with leftovers that you either can't eat all of or shouldn't eat all of (i.e. apple pie) before they go bad, and not everything freezes particularly well. So of late I've been trying out some smaller cookware and adjusting recipes to avoid this issue. My latest smaller cookware purchase is a 6 inch cast iron skillet - it is so cute! These photos offer some perspective on its size:

The first experiment with the little skillet was banana bread.

Not gonna lie, it was a huge success! Every bit as moist and tender as when I bake it in a regular loaf pan, but only about half the size of a loaf. Very promising!

I've got a list of other items I want to try in this little guy, and since it's Spring Break I'll probably actually get around to a few of them in short order. I'll also probably get around to taking and uploading several unhelpful and unnecessary photos to Amazon as well...

March Prayer Cards

Time for teacher prayer cards again; we all certainly need a boost to get us through to Spring Break! One more week left for me! This time it's the envelopes that I'm really happy with. In another why-the-heck-didn't-I-think-of-that Pinteresting experience, it was brought to my attention that it's just stupid easy to make your own envelopes. Click here for the pin.

Here's how I made mine:

Started with this super cute cardstock pack from Michael's (I brought the obligatory 40% off coupon, but this was already half off!).

Opened up an envelope the size I wanted to make.

Traced the unfolded envelope onto the cardstock, cut out the shape.

Folded 'em up, used a little double-sided tape to secure the flaps, and there you go!

Managed to put together a nice little stack while watching the most recent episode of "The Office" from the DVR.

I wrote the addresses on labels and stuck them on, and the envelopes worked perfectly! I may never use a "real" envelope again. So disappointed I wasn't aware of this before sending out a birthday card last week (Happy Birthday again, Kelly! Pi Day birthdays rule!).

Thoughtful : )

This happened over a week ago, but the thought still makes me really happy so I deemed it worthy to share. I am not a coffee drinker, but since returning to school I have developed a once-a-week Starbucks mocha habit which keeps me alive for my Wednesday night class. Not just alive, it makes me feel AWESOME - which only reinforces my reasoning for never picking up coffee, because I've always feared becoming addicted to a morning fix. The people who sit next to me in class know this story full well, because they are witnesses to what happens when that espresso kicks in for a lightweight like me : ).

A couple of weeks ago one of my seatmates needed to figure out how to connect her iPad to the SMART Board for a presentation; none of us had ever done this before. She and I were able to figure it out after much Googling, YouTubing, and crawling on the floor and into the technology cabinet.

The next week she presented me with a lovely thank you card and a Starbucks gift card!

What a genuinely thoughtful gift, and all-around really nice thing to do! It has continued to make me smile - people like that make life wonderful!

Currently March

Another month, another Currently from Farley!

"How I Met Your Mother" - at the prompting of a co-worker back in May, I picked up this show on Netflix - I figured it was going into its last season, might as well. When they announced they would be running another season after this one, I was crushed. I want to know who the mother is and move on with my life already! But I've come this far... argghhh... (On a somewhat related note, hubby and I just finished the first season of "House of Cards" - AMAZING! Love this show, can't wait for the second season!)

Casimir Pulaski Day, a school holiday in my neck of the woods. Hooray for three day weekends! I promise you, I would work longer days four days a week to get a three-day weekend every week. Think about it: despite your best intentions, Saturday is usually a recovery day, Sunday is for grading/lesson planning/laundry/house cleaning/church/all sorts of miscellaneous chores, then boom! Back to work. With a third day you can actually get stuff done! Or, not get completely buried by a weekend getaway... : )

Another storm threat - these always disappear before hitting us. And not that I want to extend the school year, but I wouldn't snub my nose at a snow day. It's been two years since the last one, after all! Ideally, we would report for school tomorrow, run ISATs in the morning, then get sent home early... still get credit for the day, no nightmare ISAT make-ups, AND a little free time!

Grading. I don't mind the first-run stuff so much - it's all the darn make-up work!

Like/Love/Hate - I did break the rules a bit here. They were all supposed to be one word, but I couldn't (wouldn't?) do it. Dessert, mmmm. Had my first dessert this weekend since Thanksgiving weekend. I've been very good about cutting the excess sugar, but when you're at a lovely Italian restaurant, how do you turn down tiramisu? Disney World! Best vacation ever - I still think about it daily since we returned seven months ago. Daylight Savings Time in the spring means that it goes back to being pitch black when I leave the house in the morning. So much harder to get moving without natural light!

Poor Kitty

Back before we moved, when we went away for the weekend our neighbors would stop by to feed our two cats. Now that we have only one cat, we purchased one of those timed pet feeders. Ours looks pretty much like this one:

We used it for the first time when we were gone for a couple of days around Christmas, and it was great! We tried to use it on a regular basis so he wouldn't wake us up in the morning, but it turns out that when he "found" food he apparently thought that it was "bonus" food and still wanted to be fed by hand afterward. Oh well. 

So before leaving this past weekend I set it up with a couple of feedings and left it in the kitchen next to his regular food bowl, and off we went. However, when we returned, the entire container was nowhere to be found. Uh oh. We finally discovered it all the way in the dining room, where he had somehow dragged it/pushed it, and managed to flip it upside down... so it couldn't open. Poor kitty went all of Saturday and then Sunday morning with no food! Poor little guy!

So that's it for this feeder, unless we manage to find a way to attach it to the floor so he can't possibly move it. Sorry Pippin!

Weekend Part 2

Day Two of our weekend getaway! Our evening began with a romantic dinner at Volare:

We clean up fairly nicely, don't we? 

Check out this handsome guy:

This one's in honor of our niece and her friends, who seem to always be snapping mirror photos of themselves with their hands on their hips and posting them on Facebook:

Anyway, if we thought dinner was amazing, that was nothing compared to YO-YO MA! He was SPECTACULAR! If you're a fan and have never seen him live, I highly recommend the experience - a recording simply cannot compare. We were of course not permitted to take photos during the performance, so here's my 'artifact' from the evening:

We had one more breakfast at Yolk this morning, then caught the train home. Great weekend!

Hawks Win!

Every once in a while you need a getaway weekend to relax and rejuvenate - this is that weekend for me and the hubby. Last night we met up with friends we haven't spent time with since Labor Day and went to see the Blackhawks play at the United Center. Since they've been on such a hot streak I've been worried for the past week that they would lose the night we went, but thanks to an overtime goal by Seabrook their streak continued to 21! Hawks win!

Here we are:

Naturally a part of any getaway is the food; we celebrated the win with a late dinner at Lou Malnati's. Pardon me, must dab away the drool from the corner of my mouth. And this morning began with a stop with our friends at our favorite Chicago breakfast place, Yolk!

The fun continues tonight with YO-YO MA! Can't wait!

For God So Loved {insert name here}

Just finished another round of prayer cards! At our former church, there was a prayer ministry for teachers - teachers in the local school district could sign up, and then church members would be given a list of names of teachers to pray for daily and to periodically send cards of encouragement. Because I was close with many teachers in my former district, I signed up again to pray even though we've moved away. Anywho, the thought I included in the cards this time was one I thought would be helpful for others to read as well:

I don't remember which of his books he wrote this in, but it has helped me over the past couple of years immensely. Doesn't just have to be students - could be your own kids, friends, spouses, people who cut in front of you in line at the grocery store...

Arranging the verse to spell out "valentine" was a Pinterest idea, by the way...

Sunday Activities

Some items from today...

Switched out the menu board background!

Completed a LOT of work for school (the job, not my classes), no thanks to this demanding cat!

Made my white bean veggie chili, Mike made his meaty chili. Here's a peek at mine in the Crock Pot, mmmmmm:

Now listening to the Super Bowl, so that I won't get too distracted by the commercials and ditch my work. The SB should really happen the day before a Monday holiday, don't you think? Two years ago we had three snow days in a row leading up to Super Bowl Sunday. With that kind of time, you can make some really awesome SB party snacks! Here's what I made that year:

They were a huge hit! Alas, this year did not allow time for such fun past-times. Just as well, it's just the two of us for the Super Bowl this year anyway! We certainly don't need dozens of jersey-shaped cookies lying around the house, especially since I'm still avoiding sweets!

Currently February

Another month, another "Currently" from Farley!

Orange peels and cinnamon - another successful Pinterest experiment!

Punxsutawney Phil, I love you - seeing the shadow means early spring! Woo hoo!

As always, thinking about ways to make my lessons better!

It has been so bitter, bitter cold this week, that I cannot wait for warmer weather!

Big paper due on Wednesday, need to finish the first draft before tomorrow night so I can take a breather and go back to it with fresh eyes and revise before the due date. Not a difficult paper, just have to buckle down!

Pet peeves - not listening and whining. All teachers will understand. Especially middle school teachers.