Se Hace Camino Al Andar

Why is my belly bigger and didn’t I just pee? and why can’t I sleep through the night? and why the hell am I so tired? And why can’t I put my socks and shoes on? And mmh, I could totally polish off this pint of ice cream rightthisverysecond. And I’m so thirsty! And so hot. Who turned up the heat in here? Someone open a window before I suffocate.

Yes, 12 weeks to go and I still have those moments of “oh, yeah. I’m pregnant again.” I swear, I have no idea how this happened!

I also still haven’t wrapped my head around the fact that we are moving in a week. A WEEK. Guess how much packing I’ve gotten done? 11 boxes. Crap still looms large. It’s very tempting to just chuck everything or freecycle it all! We already dumped a lot of stuff. Even though the space we are moving into is bigger, it is also open, which demands less stuff since it can’t all be stashed away into various dark corners. It’s just as well… I miss those days when packing meant throwing all my books into boxes and my clothes into suitcases and I could call it a day. Now, we have… I don’t even know what. Camping gear, for starters. I have many more kitchen appliances than I once did. Also, baby and toddler crap.  It’s unavoidable but I bet I can find more stuff to throw out!

Thanks to the ‘10 Bloggies, I’m addicted to more blogs. Here are two that I’m crushing on right now:

Booklicious

Confessions of a Young Married Couple

As my Facebook and Twitter contacts might’ve surmised, Henry and I are packing up and moving on! It seems like we’ve been scheming and dreaming about moving to Western MA since we first met and bonded over our common love for Northampton, our shared desire for a quieter, more simpler life.

There’s nothing like having one kid, then another to bring your dreams, your priorities, your desires into sharp focus. Instead of a hazy mirage somewhere in the distance, all that you strive for takes on urgency and you starting finding ways to make it all happen. And I’m happy to say, we’ve finally made it happen. We’re taking that first step and moving to Western MA in two weeks, thanks to a great job opportunity for Henry. We have yet to sell our apartment but we are eager to move and the company is eager to have him close by, so we’re in the midst of packing and purging and cleaning. We’ve signed a lease, handed over our first, last and security. We’re a little nervous about balancing all our finances until the apartment sells but we’re determined to see each other through and stick it out. This is just one stop on our way to the clear vision we see at the end– land, a farmhouse, children chasing chickens around.

We are so excited. We’re leaving a lot behind–our friends, our family, financial security but we have faith that though we’ll be poorer in some ways, we’ll be rich in happiness.

Some other things:

• Today marks the beginning of my third trimester. April looms ever closer!
• I’ve registered to take the MTEL, the Massachusetts licensing exam for teachers. I plan to re-enter the classroom sometime in late 2010, early 2011. Wish me luck!
• If you know anyone in the market for a lovely, little apartment in a lovely, little building in a quiet neighborhood, do let me know!

When my mom made Rice-A-Roni for dinner, it was a good night. If I didn’t have so many siblings, I would’ve easily polished off the entire thing myself. What to do, then, when you’re an adult and you’ve sworn off most processed foods, especially something like Rice-A-Roni, which probably contains more sodium than any one human should ingest in a single sitting?

Make your own, of course. If you google homemade Rice-A-Roni recipes, you’ll get a lot of hits. I didn’t realize that Rice-A-Roni actually has pasta in it. All I remember is the yummy chicken-y taste and the perfectly cooked rice.  Also, when looking at the recipes, I realized that I had basically made homemade Rice-a-Roni before, in the form of Giada De Laurientiis’ Nonna Luna rice. Nice try, Giada!

These days, I’m not in the mood for fancy, doctored-up Rice-A-Roni a la Giada. When I’m pregnant, I find myself going back to good old suburban comfort food of my childhood and tonight was no exception.  It was nothing exciting or fancy but oh so good, oh so comforting and oh so… cheap! Call me a recessionista!

Chicken-y Rice with Almond-Honey Chicken Tenders

Rice:

1 cup of white rice

Scant 2 cups of chicken broth

1 chicken boullion cube or one packet of chicken boullion powder (I use Goya).

2 tablespoons butter

In a saucepan or skillet, melt butter, then add rice and boullion. Cook until rice is toasted and coated in butter and boullion. Add chicken broth, bring to a boil, cover and lower to a simmer. Simmer for 15-20 minutes, until most of the liquid is absorbed. At this point, you can either transfer the rice to a pan or if your skillet is oven-proof, leave the rice in the skillet.

Chicken:

A package of chicken tenders

Breadcrumbs

Ground almonds (I ground them in my food processor. You want them pretty fine but not powdery)

Egg

Milk (or cream or half&half)

2 or 3 tablespoons Honey

Flour

3  small pans or wide, shallow bowls

Vegetable oil

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a skillet, heat vegetable oil, enough to cover bottom of pan.

3. In one bowl, combine bread crumbs and ground almonds. In another, beat together the egg, milk and honey. In the third bowl, add a 1/2 cup or so of flour.

4. Dredge each chicken tender first in flour, then dip in egg, then dredge in breadcrumb mixture.

5. Add chicken tenders to hot skillet, 3 or 4 at a time. Pan-fry until coating is brown and crisp, and chicken is almost cooked through.

6. Transfer chicken to pan or skillet with rice, placing the chicken on top of the rice.

7. Cover with foil and cook in the oven for 20 minutes.

Serve it up and enjoy. As my husband said, “I could eat like this three times a week and be a happy man.”