Tomorrow night, the premier of Steven Bochco's new legal series Raising the Barwill air on TNT. Thanks to HouseParty.com, my friends and I already watched the premier over a week ago. I was selected to present an early screening of the premier in my home just because I'm special (Actually, I'm pretty sure that my proclamations of undying love for TNT's The Closer combined with my descriptions of the Mr's ridiculously well-equipped theatre room helped to bump my application up just a smidge).
First things first: If you are at all interested in receiving free stuff and in having get-togethers with your friends who might also enjoy some free stuff, then I whole-heartedly recommend that you register at HouseParty.com. They're constantly setting people up with fun products to try out. It's a way for companies to get their goods into homes, and it's a way for the rest of us to enjoy something new that we otherwise might not have tried. Just for hosting this party, I received a large cooler tote, a set of tumblers, and packages of coasters to give to my guests.
Now, about Raising the Bar. You know, I hadn't even noticed in the previews that attorney Jerry Kellerman was in fact, Zach Morris until the night that we watched the premier. It took me just a few minutes into the episode to get over that. Only moments later, I had to repeat the whole process for Judge Lois Kessler. Neither of these wildly incongruent associations hindered my ability to enjoy the plot. What did impede my enjoyment, however, was a teensy bit of overacting by a couple of secondary characters as well as a whole lot of bad hair. Zach's short blond 'do has been replaced by Jerry's dark, long-ish, over-pomaded mop. The rest of the cast sports some equally overdone hair. But is bad hair and a little bit of overzealous drama enough to turn me off?
No. The story is good, and the characters are likable, so I'll be watching this one.
But is this the next Closer for me? Probably not. I mean, it's going to take A WHOLE LOT to outdo my affection for Sgt. Gabriel. And while I probably won't watch the premier again, I've already set the DVR to record an entire season of Raising the Bar.
Y'all, I'm still here. Just barely. I love my new position at work, but it is very demanding and a little overwhelming in these first weeks. Al loves his new preschool and has not shed one single tear at drop-off, ever. That makes my heart happy.
My favorite aunt passed away yesterday--not unexpectedly, but can you ever really be prepared?--and for that, my heart is sad. We will be traveling to her funeral this weekend, so the couple of posts that I've been working on (in my head, at least) may have to wait even longer.
To those of you who have checked up on me, thank you. The fact that you even noticed is flattering.
Tomorrow morning, The New School Year officially begins. Al goes off to a new preschool--the Holy Grail of All Preschools. We were on the wait list for THREE YEARS, folks. I signed up the day after the pee stick showed two lines. I told the preschool's director that I was pregnant long before I even told my own mother.
I am nervous. I'm afraid that the new school won't live up to my expectations. But after a year of my son coming home and talking about Blue's "Thinking Chair" and Barney and Elmo when NONE of those programs have EVER been broadcast in our home? I'm pretty sure this will be a good change.
So tonight, I'll get all of our school-day paraphernalia laid out and I'll make sure that Alex and I both get to bed early.
For me, back-to-school means back-to-early-mornings. I'm a morning person, so this is no big deal. BUT. I have finally accepted the fact that if I'm going to continue to get in better shape, I have no choice but to do my running/walking/crawling on the treadmill before everyone else gets up. My treadmill is situated in our TV room so that I can watch all of my DVRed "stories" while I earn my Activity POINTS®.
That's right--no TV during the day for Al, but by golly, I've got to start my day with a good 45-minute dose of it.
The problem? My DVR is all but empty right now. I need something to occupy my brain at 5am while I'm trying to will my legs to move. I need suggestions, folks.
At the end of Monday evening, I will already have a new episode of "The Closer" and "Jon & Kate + 8" (anyone else reading the tell-alls about those two? I'm not sure what I believe at this point).
I've never gotten into "Lost" or "Grey's Anatomy" and I imagine it's a little late for me to jump on those wagons. I quit "Ugly Betty" after they killed off Santos (I know--I cut off my nose to spite my face, but still, that made me really angry), and I'm still mourning the cancellation of "Veronica Mars."
So there's a little glimpse into my television-watching habits. I'll probably watch some Olympics footage during this first week, but in the meantime, what should I be recording?
Lots and lots of years ago--I'm talking 1994, y'all--I fired up my state-of-the-art gargantuan 486 CPU and logged onto my very first (and only) America Online account. I can still remember how unbelievable it was to me that I could actually "talk" on the computer to people who were thousands of miles away. It was a mind-boggling thing. I grew to yearn for that sweet, sweet voice to notify me that "You've Got Mail!" I spent countless hours (quite literally) crawling the WWW in those early days just to see who and what was out there.
Soon I realized that I needed a screen name, something a little more personable than jlk00038. I decided to go with my first name and my middle initial (G) attached to "Whiz"-- *****GWhiz (Except instead of *****, I used my real first name. But you already knew that, probably). I chose the "GWhiz" ending because 1) it was a play on a real phrase, and 2) I had a reputation of being a little bit bookwormy, and "whiz" was a way to denote that.I continued to use that same screen name for years in IM applications, email accounts, and forums, even after I graduated from AOL to a "real" ISP.
When the Mr. and I got married, I changed my last name to his last name, and I dropped my original middle name and put my maiden name in its place. So now, there was an "H" where the "G" used to be. What to do with my screen name? *****HWhiz didn't sound right at all. Yep, I had pretty much just ruined my life. Well, OK, not my life, but I had ruined my 11-year-old screen name, and isn't that almost just as bad?
Fortunately, the Mr's (and now my) last name lent itself beautifully to my "whiz" screen name theme. I discovered that if I attached the first few letters of my first name to the first few letters of my new last name and tacked that onto "whiz," I got JezeWhiz, which sounded much like GWhiz. Even more fantastic was that JezeWhiz sounded almost exactly like Cheez-Whiz, which is pretty much my most favorite foodstuff in the whole entire world. Serendipity!
And that is how JezeWhiz was born. Bet you always wondered about that, huh?
However, that is not the most important point here. Yeah, I know--4+ paragraphs of back story, and we're finally getting to the purpose of this whole rigamarole: Cheez Whiz, baby!
I've got some Cheez-y recipes for you, and they're not all completely deadly in the calorie department. However, if you are watching your sodium intake for any reason whatsoever, turn away now. Seriously, my fingers are still swollen from this experiment. It was all worth it, though.
Here are four ways to eat Cheez Whiz in order of (my) least favorite to (my) most favorite:
#1: Not too shabby: Cheezy Pasta 'n' Broccoli. Of course, I had to work in an "'n'" to make the name all cutesy and stuff. Isn't that what Cheez Whiz recipes are all about?
1 T olive oil
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
3 cups cooked whole wheat rotini (or shells or elbow mac or whatever)
1 cup cooked chopped broccoli (I nuked some frozen broccoli and set aside) Also, you can add any other cooked vegetables you like. I threw some diced carrots into this one for color.
2/3 cup Cheez Whiz
Saute the chopped onion in olive oil over medium heat in a large pot. Add the follow three ingredients and stir until uniformly combined and heated through. Makes 6 servings.
Nutritional Info per serving 1/2 cup serving: 202 calories; 8g fat; 4g saturated fat; 21mg cholesterol; 460mg sodium; 25g carbohydrates; 4g fiber; 9g protein.
#2 Weeknight Favorite: Calabazitas con Queso (Quezo?), aka, zucchini with Cheez. I call this one by its Spanish name because the recipe is one that I lifted from my ex-boyfriend's mother, a Mexican immigrant whose cooking I missed far more than my ex-boyfriend after we broke up. We always just called it, simply, "calabazitas." She makes this with Velveeta--definitely not an authentic Mexican ingredient, but she's been a naturalized U.S. citizen for many years, so what would you expect? The Cheez Whiz version is almost the exact same.
2 cups chopped zucchini
1 T olive oil
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup Cheeze Whiz
Saute onion in olive oil in a nonstick pan until tender. Add zucchini, cover, and cook for several minutes until tender. Add Cheez Whiz and stir until melted.
Nutritional Info per 1/2 cup serving: 117 calories; 9g fat; 4g saturated fat; 19mg cholesterol; 409mg sodium; 7g carbohydrates; 2g fiber; 4g protein.
#3 YUM: Cheezy Roast Beef Sandwich.I really can't say anything about this one, except it's pretty darned delicious. You could probably do a hot ham and cheez version, but the combination of roast beef and onions and Cheez just can't be beat in my book.
1 Light English Muffin, toasted (I used Thomas Light English muffins)
1.5 T Cheez Whiz
1.5 oz thinly sliced roast beef
1 thin slice onion
non stick cooking spray
Spray a small non stick pan with cooking spray and lightly brown the onion slice on medium heat. Spread both sides of English muffin with Cheez Whiz. On one side, place browned onion and on other side, arrange roast beef. Pop it in the microwave (open-faced) for about 12 second to warm through. Close sandwich and serve. Makes 1 serving.
#4: The reason that I cannot have Cheez Whiz in my house: Nachos, baby. If I had my choice, and if there were no such thing as POINTS®, I would eat a jar of Cheez Whiz with a big ol' bag of tortilla chips every day. Just like that, dipping the chip into the room temperature cheezy foodstuff goodness until the chips wouldn't reach and I'd have to scrape the jar clean with my finger. But that's just not very lady-like. Or healthy. Rats.
Instead, I made some semi-classed-up nachos that weren't entirely unreasonably junky. Well, OK, they were pretty junky, but man, they were good. Thank goodness for those 35 Weekly POINTS® because this ate up a good chunk of them.
1/4 c Cheez Whiz (more or less, probably more)
1/4 c Salsa
Tortilla chips. I like the cheap ones.
In a bowl (or in my case, the jar) combine the Cheez Whiz and salsa and microwave until melted. Stir and pour over tortilla chips. Add jalapenos if you want.Nutritional Info per serving: Seriously, who cares?
From top, Cheezy Pasta 'n' Broccoli, Cheezy Roast Beef Sandwich, Calabazitas con Queso. Not Pictured: Nachos. I devoured them before I could take a picture.
This morning, I took Al to "school," then came back home and started washing the Big Ol' Honking Ugly Amuhr'can SUV. I vacuumed the interior, washed the exterior, rubbed out some little scratches with rubbing compound, dried, and applied tire shine (I imagine that stuff is made of all kinds of chemicals that are harmful to the environment, but it sure makes my tires look purty).
THEN, I trimmed the hedges. No, actually, I chopped those suckers back down to size. How dare they grow during the summer. The nerve. I even dug up one bush and replanted it on level with the others. Then, I weeded the flower beds, raked up all the debris, bagged said debris, cleaned the gardening tools, and put everything away.
THEN (I know. I'm a lunatic. It's official), I installed some shelves in the coat closet in the laundry room so that it can now serve as an additional pantry. I transferred all of the items from our usual pantry that we rarely use to the "new" pantry. While I was at it, I figured I'd clean out the spice cabinet, too.
I'm seriously questioning my own sanity at this point because I had also planned to write that little number about my Cheez Whiz experiment and the ridiculously bad and wrong and delicious concoctions that I cooked up. But my arms ache and my body is tired, and I just want to go get my boy so we can lay on the couch and eat animal crackers and watch Higglytown Heroes* together.
*He says "heh-roes," not "hee-roes." It's adorable.
The Mr. and I both have colds. We spent the weekend serenading one another with unilateral nostril breathing accompanied by honking, blowing, and cursing throughout the day, followed by harmonious nasal whistling all night long. We're currently on Day 4 of the "Who's Knocking Harder Upon the Door o' Death" competition. The "Whose Boogers are Greener" competition was just too much for the Mr. to stomach, so we had to abandon that game.
And speaking of green (could that segue have been more pathetic?), my sad little immune system has been craving antioxidants, so I whipped up a green smoothie for an afternoon snack.
I simply tossed 1 cup frozen chopped spinach, 3 banana cubes (you know, the banana puree that I freeze in the ice cube trays and forget about until I'm wondering why the ice is so yellow and cloudy), and a cup of orange juice into the blender and gave it a good whirl. Granted, it's not much to look at, but it's surprisingly yummy. It tastes a lot like oranges, a teensy bit like spinach, and nothing at all like bananas.
The the new school year is just about jump up and bite my summer-loving behind, and I've spent this week in day-long workshops preparing for my new job. That means that I've been getting up at 5am to do my time on the treadmill, fix breakfast, wake the kid, and get us both ready to hit the door by 7:10. I'm not sure if I'm ready to do this daily for the next nine months.
Adjusting to a new schedule and tending to all the final to-do items before summer's end has me feeling a little bit stressed, and in my house, there's only one way to deal with stress: Cake.
I found this Angel Food Cake on AllRecipes--my go-to site for reliable recipes. Here's a tip for using recipe sites that include user reviews: After you perform a search, click on "ratings," and the list will be sorted by the recipe's ratings. That way, the first page of recipes that appears will contain most highly rated.
I topped mine with Cool Whip Free and frozen strawberries that I thawed, sliced and sweetened with plain ol' sugar. I'm thinking it might also be good in a trifle, cubed and layered with homemade chocolate pudding and real whipped cream. Or, how about some ice cream and hot fudge? Someone please make me stop.
Here's the nutritional data from AllRecipes.com for the naked Angel Food cake:
Nutritional Analysis: One slice equals 101 calories, trace fat (0 saturated fat), 0 cholesterol, 59 mg sodium, 23 g carbohydrate, 0 fiber, 3 g protein. Diabetic Exchanges: 1-1/2 starch.
I can't be held responsible for the nutritional value of the toppings.
The squash and tomatoes and everything else have all but fried in the 100+ degree heat, but the peppers seem to love it.
What to do? I know there's this--a long-time favorite of mine. But frankly, my backside can't afford that kind of points damage. And do you think trying to recreate that masterpiece with lowfat cream cheese and turkey bacon would fly? Yeah, me neither.
So, any suggestions? I've got jalapeños out the enchilada and I need to do something with them, ¡pronto!
