The Tallest Lasagna and the Things I Left Behind

I got busy, and I'm sorry. For the first two weeks of April, most of my time was spent thinking about how to eat the lasagna left over from Easter. I used the Fine Cooking recipe, but I'm pretty sure you need a membership of some kind to access it so I'm not going to provide a link even though that's probably the polite thing to do. Oh fine you can find the recipe here. It's supposed to make three small lasagnas, but I only had one deep dish on hand, so I halved the recipe and made half a lasagna on top of the lasagna. The recipe assures that the pre-cooked lasagna can rise above the edge of the pan, because it settles quite a bit while cooking. I was apprehensive, but they have a picture with two whole noodle layers towering over the edge. 

But no. It still bubbled over, and it was still the tallest, deepest, heaviest lasagna. 

Other ways I altered the recipe: well... I used hot Italian sausage instead of mild. I also didn't have much spice on hand, but the seasoning from the sausages permeated through the lasagna very nicely. I just love the word lasagna, don't you? Lasagna, lasagna, lasagna. 

And: there was some packing up and moving back to Ontario to do. Some things to leave behind. Like my lovely little coffee plant, and a pennant from the magazine project (I was going to bring it with me until the E fell off, and then I figured by the time I got home it would probably just be a brown triangle. i.e. clutter).

And books! Most had to be left behind for weight considerations. I feel like there's a pro-Ebook argument to made here, but I wouldn't have been sentimental about these books in the first place if they'd been electronic. Aww, remember that one on the right? That's the book with nothing in it that I was so excited about. I feel guilty about every one of these books. Except maybe for the Editing Canadian English, which I have only used a) to ventilate my old laptop and keep it from overheating and b) as part of my Mennonite halloween costume because it looks the most like a bible out of all my books.

Fortunately, I sent a couple of things on ahead, like this Super Mutant Magic Academy poster that I just had to have.

In other news, I'm enjoying my mom's house (and company!) so much that I've decided to commute to Toronto for my internship. Or at least give it a try. If it drives me insane I'll find a place to live, but with the way I feel right now I really wouldn't mind having a few hours every day to sit and read or write or think or sleep or whatever. I was brought up on road trips, and 401 traffic has an oddly calming effect on me, as long as I'm not driving (but even then). Without homework to stay behind or rush home for, it feels like there are six more hours in the day.

The only problem now is GETTING the internship. What happened and why don't I have one yet? Oh I don't feel like getting into that. Just wish me luck.

A Day for Doing Things

 I had this rule where if it was a weekend, I was really going to take the day off if I could. And if I had to go in to work, then I would work on my own stuff only if it wasn't a full shift, and only for the amount of time to do eight hours of work in a day. But here I am, on a Saturday, before a full shift at work, getting things done.

Well mostly I'm waiting for my dog to wake up and insist on going outside RIGHT AWAY before I commit myself to anything too time-consuming, like having a shower.

I haven't been crafting much lately. Since that whole glass fiasco, I decided that the best present for Katherine would be a cross stitch pattern that I was making when we lived on Quinn Street. She was always so excited to see it coming along, and planning where we would put it once it was done, so it always sort of weighed on me that I never finished it. UNTIL NOW!

 Of course, when one openly makes something like this, one gets a lot of comments such as "you know, that would look great in OUR kitchen, too," so maybe that's where this sudden cross stitch craze came from. The huge one I'm working on will never be finished, and takes so much obvious effort that maybe people won't just ask for it. I mean heck, this one's not completely filled in, is the size of a photograph, took me three years to finish (although an intensive three weeks at the end covered most of it), and was about $300 to frame (although I got it on sale).

Also shipping is a pain. But I think I've got the hang of it. All I can say is, I'm never getting anything framed again.

Of course I had pictures of the finished package, but thought maybe Katherine would appreciate my not putting up pictures of things that had her address written on them in block letters.

 Oh, and I DID team up with my mom this Easter to make that pie I said I'd never make again. With two people it goes much faster, and with far fewer meltdowns. We actually got it on the table when it was still light out!

In other news, this is my fiftieth post! I'll drink to that.