A Late-Blooming Fan of "The Wire"

I know that I'm late to the game here (considering the show has been off the air since 2008), but The Wire is amazing! I've heard for years that it was a great show, but just hadn't gotten around to watching it. Rick owns the entire series on DVD, so I knew I would see it eventually see what all the fuss what about.

And man, is this show worth fussing about!

The series is about the complicated relationships between drug dealers, addicts, police, politicians and the media in inner-city Baltimore. It's tough to sum up such a deep, well-crafted show so I should say that a one-sentence synopsis doesn't do it justice. The strength of the show is the complex characters; everyone has many sides and no one is who he seems. The Wire also plays with the roles of good guys and bad guys-- sometimes the "bad guys" are the most likable characters and the "good guys" are scum.

I don't want to go into too much detail and I don't want to share a clip that might give something away to a would-be fan, so you'll just have to trust me that it's a fantastic show. (I like it this much and we're still only on season three!)


HBO photo

My first attempt at Lasagna

A few weeks ago, I ordered The Skinnygirl Dish through Amazon. Yes, it is a cookbook by reality star Bethenny Frankel, but she's also a trained chef. And I'm upfront about my love for bad TV, so I'm not afraid to say that I like Bethenny even though she is a little wacky (and she knows it). I'm also not afraid to say that I think Skinnygirl Dish is a great cookbook. It's part-cookbook, part-cooking philosophy book -- one of the major ideas behind the book is to get over one's fear of cooking and feel comfortable enough with cooking to make recipes healthier and experiment.

Tonight I tried a recipe for a healthier version of classic lasagna and it came out really well. It was my first time making a lasagna of any kind and I was really happy with the results. I don't have any great pictures of my version, but here is a picture from Bethenny's website.

Lighter Lasagna

- 8 oz lasagna noodles (whole wheat if you can find them) non-boil are much easier
- 1lb+ of ground turkey or turkey sausages with casing removed (I found some ground turkey that was pre-seasoned with Italian seasonings and it was great.)
- 1 jar of tomato sauce
- 1/2 C chopped fresh basil
- 2 TBS parsley (The original recipe calls for more parsley and less basil, but I reversed the ingredients by accident and liked all the fresh basil in the lasagna!)
- 15 oz part-skim ricotta cheese or low fat cottage cheese
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
- 4 oz part-skim shredded mozzarella
- 1/3 C shredded parm cheese (I skipped the parm and it was still tasty with just mozzarella)

1. Boil lasagna noodles if necessary. Brown and drain turkey in a sprayed, non-stick skillet. After turkey is cooked, add tomato sauce and then remove from heat and set aside. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Mix ricotta/cottage cheese with herbs.
3. Spray a large glass dish and put first layer of noodles down. Alternate layers of noodles, meat/tomato sauce mixture and ricotta/herbs mixture. Sprinkle the top with the shredded cheese.
4. Cook in oven for 25-30 min; until bubbling and warmed through. Remove from oven and let settle for 20 min before serving. Delicious and better for you, too!

Crunchy Panko Shrimp with Couscous and Ginger-Orange Sauce

This tasty experiment came courtesy of a Cooking Light cookbook. We were in the mood for shrimp and this recipe caught my eye since it didn't seem too complicated. Luckily, it wasn't and it's definitely a recipe I'll make again. This was the first time I've cooked with Panko and I don't know why it's taken me so long to use it! I've always liked the taste of it, but just never thought to use it. (Clarice is a Panko-devotee; check out these delicious treats she recently whipped up using Panko.)

This was also the first time I've used fresh ginger root. It smells so good and is easy to peel, too. (Thanks to Martha for the quick ginger-peeling trick.) The recipe calls for fresh cilantro, which I used, but I really think dried cilantro would work, too. Enjoy!

Ginger-Orange Sauce:
1 C orange juice
2 TBS low-fat mayo
1.5 TBS chicken broth
1 TBS cilantro
1 tsp grated, peeled ginger
1 tsp lime juice
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp salt

Couscous:
1 C uncooked couscous
1.5 C chicken broth
1/2 C orange juice
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 C chopped green onions
2 TBS sliced, toasted almond
1 TBS butter/margarine

Shrimp:
1 lb jump shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 egg white, lightly beaten
1/2 C Panko breadcrumbs (I used more!)
1 tsp cilantro
1/2 tsp peeled, grated ginger
1/8 pepper
canola/olive oil for skillet

Garnish green:
2 C arugula

1. For sauce, bring 1 C OJ to a boil in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook for about 10 min; OJ will reduce to about 1/4 cup. Remove from heat and let cool completely. Stir in mayo and the rest of the sauce ingredients. (I used my food processor to blend everything completely.) Set sauce aside.


2. For couscous, place couscous in a large, sprayed skillet over medium-high heat. Cook for about 4 minutes, stirring constantly until couscous is toasted. Add 1.5 C broth, 1/2 C OJ and 1/2 tsp salt; bring to a boil. Remove from heat, cover and let stand for 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork and add the rest of the couscous ingredients. Mix well and keep warm until ready to serve.

3. For shrimp, combine the shrimp (tails removed) with the egg white in a large bowl, tossing to coat shrimp. Mix Panko, 1 tsp cilantro, 1/2 tsp ginger and pepper in a large ziplock bag. Add shrimp to the bag, seal and toss until well-mixed. Add more Panko if needed.

4. Heat oil in a large non-stick skillet. Arrange shrimp in a single layer and cook about three minute each side or until cooke through.

5. To serve, spoon couscous on plate, top with arugula, add shrimp and drizzle sauce on top. Yum!

Cute explosion

A few weeks ago, we spent a lovely Sunday with J-School friends in Cutetown, USA. Actually, we were in Hanover, Mass., but it might as well have been the headquarters of adorable. Not only did we spend time with a sweet newborn, but we also played with a puppy. A baby and a puppy!

The get-together was the NEU crew's first introduction to little Mr. Teddy! And he is one good baby. We all took turn snuggling with him and he didn't even fuss. (I will admit that I was kind of a baby hog, but I couldn't resist!) Teddy made the funniest little faces all afternoon. I just couldn't get over how expressive he is and he is just one month old!



And just when we thought the afternoon couldn't get better, Korri told us that her family brought home a golden wheaten terrier puppy right before Teddy was born and they named him Casey. Yay!



Casey couldn't look any more like a Muppet if he tried and Teddy couldn't get any more lovable if he tried. And although Teddy's mommy is taking some AMAZING photos of him, I couldn't resist taking a few of my own. They're slightly blurry because I didn't want to use a flash right in Teddy's face, but little Teddybear is still very photogenic--even when he is upset like the photo below!


It was a great afternoon and I can't wait until we get together again! (And try and top the ultimate sweetness of the day.)

Rodent Update

We caught one last night. I now feel oddly guilty... RIP mouse.

The Return (of Both Good Things and Bad Things)

Hi again, loyal blog readers (all five or so of you). I apologize for my long hiatus from MOA. The past few weeks have been pretty hectic, but I've returned to blogging and to the working world! It's great to be back at work and it's great to be back to blogging, but this month has also marked the return of a not-so-welcome guest... That's right; it's a pesky rodent (or more than one).

After my months-long war with the mice we saw in Brookline, pests have surfaced in our new apartment. (I blame Sally for sending them here.) I first saw a mouse in the kitchen a few weeks back and it darted into a gap between our counter and kitchen wall. An exterminator came to patch the hole and that seemed to take care of the problem...for a little while.

I was angry (really angry) to find mice turds on our carpet at the beginning of the month. Later that week, Rick saw a little vermin run under our dishwasher. The exterminator again return and placed some glue traps under the dishwasher. Well, the traps are empty and the turds keep reappearing.

This week, I decided to try and a new tactic and replace in the untouched peanut butter in our snap traps with some nice cheddar cheese. I moved the traps and loaded them up with fromage, feeling confident that the cheese would tempt the little suckers. And I was right-- the cheese tempted the mice so much that the cheese was gone the next morning, but the traps were empty! One even snapped, but apparently the critter was too fast.

Cut to today-- I've reloaded the traps with cheese (and vacuumed more turds) but I used a much smaller piece of cheese and stuck it onto the trap. We'll see what happens now, but I'm getting pretty tired of these mice inviting themselves into my home! Stay tuned...

Telling the important stories

I love a good story. That love of stories made me a voracious reader and writer as a child and it drove me to pursue journalism as an adult.

A well-told story--whether it's true or imagined--should expand one's horizons and leave the reader or listener thinking. Unfortunately, I think many of these stories fall through the cracks in today's media because of limited TV time or page space or because of the overwhelming amount of information available online.

Some readers and viewers may search for the sensational or gossipy stories, but the job of journalists is to tell the stories that matter. Too often, these stories remain untold for many different reasons.

While I believe the news should not be sugar-coated or dumbed down, we still need to make an effort to get the positive and inspirational stories out there, too.

NBC Nightly News does a great job of this. It runs a reoccurring segment called "Making a Difference", in which the story of a person or organization striving for positive change is told. These types of interesting and unique stories capture my attention and inspire me to find these kinds of people in my neighborhood so I can get their messages out there.

"Making a Difference" always runs at the end of the newscast--probably to leave viewers thinking about what they just saw and with some hope...

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy