This blog title is very fitting

By blog title, I mean "everything but writing", seeing as I haven't updated in a month. Though it does remind me of Rafa's [tennis player] first blog, where he kept referencing his second blog, and third blog, etc, then finally included the line, "This is my fifth post! I have been reading some of your comments and you have been telling me this is a post, not a blog. Thanks for that."

I'm teaching five classes this semester, so the start of school has felt crazier than last year. I finally feel like I'm getting energy again only to start adding yet more things to my calendar. This evening my mom and I went to Cooking Live, which is a semi-regular class First Baptist holds. The lady who holds it teaches various classes throughout the region and the idea is twofold: to help busy people prepare home cooked meals, and to make people more comfortable hosting others. She also gives delicious samples of four - five recipes every time. One recipe that I've discovered through a previous class is "Meaty Minestrone", and I like to make and to carry in my thermos for my evening break. Here are the ingredients:

3/4 - 1 lb browned meat (I use ground beef)
1 onion, chopped and cooked with meat
32 oz. vegetable broth (two cans or one box)
1 15-oz can tomatoes
1 can each red and white kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 bag frozen mixed vegetables
1 cup small pasta
1 bay leaf

Cook the meat and onion (or have it frozen so that you only have to defrost it) and then add the vegetable broth, tomatoes, beans, vegetables, and bay leaf. Bring to a boil and then add the pasta and lower the heat. Oh yeah, and she adds a pinch of sugar to it as well, though I'm not sure exactly why that helps. Remove the bay leaf before serving. So easy! And it freezes well, but you may want more broth if you plan to freeze it, because the pasta really soaks it up by that point.

Unfortunately I will miss the next Cooking Live (which will be on Crock Pot cooking, which I really like.) This is because I'm taking a noncredit class at the community college. They offered a seven-session course on Beginning German, and I've had Spanish, French, and Japanese, but German was new to me, so I thought, "Why not?" My only association with it so far is of a former boss who used to speak it to herself occasionally, so maybe next time I see her I can answer back.

This weekend we are having another teen event at the library. We're going to have a book discussion of Inkheart and then watch the movie. I've been reading the book in preparation. It's not my favorite, but the concept of a book coming to life is always fun. Stranger Than Fiction is a movie with a somewhat similar twist...if you ever get a chance to watch it I recommend it!