Not Just Another Weekend...

Today is Memorial Day. It is a day of reflection, though its meaning has become more and more obscured by the excitement of a three-day weekend, and a break from work and our everyday routines.

But as we revel in the parties, picnics and vacations, we must remember the meaning behind today. This isn’t a free holiday. It came with a price, and we must never forget those that paid it and the ones they left behind.

In all likelihood, someone, somewhere today will get a knock on the door informing them that their husband/wife/son/daughter/father/mother/sister/brother will not be returning home. And for them, Memorial Day will never be just another party, picnic or vacation.

So in honor of Memorial Day--and in honor of the heroes who are the reason for this day--I wanted to share two of my favorite poems. The first was written by a Canadian surgeon in May 1915. The second was written by a high school senior in 1981. Though separated by decades and different wars, the words still resonate today as we send our friends and family members, a new generation, off to war...unsure if they will ever come home.

In Flanders Fields
by John McCrae

In Flanders fields the poppies blow


Between the crosses, row on row,


That mark our place; and in the sky


The larks, still bravely singing, fly


Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago


We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,


Loved and were loved, and now we lie


In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:


To you from failing hands we throw


The torch; be yours to hold it high.


If ye break faith with us who die


We shall not sleep, though poppies grow


In Flanders fields.

Awesome & Easy (and Healthy!) Cobbler

I am not a cobbler person. If offered some sort of cobbler and any other dessert, I’ll choose the non-cobbler option. However, shortly after moving to our home here in Germany, our neighbors invited us over for dinner. As a dessert, she made a phenomenal blueberry cobbler. I was hooked! So while I will reject just about any other cobbler, every now and then I would crave that one! I got the recipe from our neighbor...and proceeded to play with it until it bore very little resemblance to the original. I don’t improvise recipes, I mutilate them.

Here’s the problem...I HATE following recipes. I have concluded that it is truly impossible for me to follow a recipe to the letter. It’s an inherent compulsion. I have to play and substitute and alter! Sometimes I will do so well....get to the end of the recipe, everything by the book. It’s time to cook or bake it. And then the urge kicks in...Must.Change.Something. So I add something...maybe a little chocolate cream liqueur or vanilla rum to cakes, cookies and brownies. Maybe a dash of thyme or garlic to the meat. Maybe I’ll use wine instead of water. Maybe I’ll throw in a dash of rice vinegar or sesame oil. I just have to do something different.

Needless to say, this has led to some very, um...interesting...and uh, well, downright horrible experiments! There were the spearmint brownies (they were supposed to be peppermint, but apparently I didn’t read the extract label closely enough). Yeah, spearmint brownies=Fail! Don’t try that one. Trust me on this. There was the tofu fondue. Also a major fail. There was the slow cooker BBQ chicken that, after nearly 24-hours in the crockpot (on high...whoops!), had a nice crispy coating that was NOT part of my original plan.

The good news, is that there have also been quite a few successes! Like the healthy vegetarian chik’n pot pie, semi-healthy red hot brownies...and this one! My Healthy Berry Cobbler, which my husband and I both enjoy, despite being non-cobbler people. One of the things I love best about this recipe is its flexibility! At the end of the recipe, I’ve made suggestions for changing it up and adding your own flair!

A Few Easy Recipes...

Well, it’s been quite a while since I updated this thing. I’m going to blame it on a combination of making a trip back to the States and sheer laziness! :)

I’ve got another post in the works, but in the meantime, I wanted to share a couple of my favorite recipes. The first is one I stumbled upon accidentally a few years ago. As usual, I had put off going to the grocery store until we literally were down to scraps. Neither of us felt like braving the commissary, so I scavenged through our cabinets looking for anything I could throw together to get us through one more meal. It was total improvisation born out of desperation, but this turned into one of our favorite meals! It’s a great standby...I always keep the ingredients on hand in case we want something quick and easy to make! It is super easy to throw together and offers a great deal of flexibility in terms of portion size and ingredients. It makes a quick, simple meal for just the two of us, but the ingredients can easily be increased to feed a larger family. You can add or subtract ingredients easily, and substitute lower fat, healthier ingredients for those watching their diets. It also incorporates most of the major food groups in one fast meal!

Ranch Rice Wraps

Ingredients:

• Flour Tortillas (can use low-carb or whole wheat tortillas as healthier options)
• Chicken Breasts, sliced into strips (I usually calculate 1/2 large chicken breast per wrap)
• Lettuce, shredded (spinach can be substituted, if desired)
• Tomatoes, diced
• Cheese, shredded (I usually use a low-fat Mexican blend, but swiss is another good choice)
• 1 cup dry white wine
• White or Brown Rice, cooked (I usually allow for 1/4-1/2 c. rice per wrap)
• 1 Large Ranch Salad Dressing/Dip Mix Packet
• Salt & Pepper

Cook rice per package instructions. Once rice has been cooked and drained, stir in 1/2 of the ranch seasoning packet. Set aside. Pour wine into a large skillet. Add chicken. Season chicken with the remainder of the ranch mix and salt and pepper, to taste. Cook until chicken shows no pink in the center and is tender.

Heat flour tortillas in the microwave for about 20 seconds. Fill wraps with chicken, rice, lettuce, tomatoes and cheese. Fold in two opposite sides of the wrap, then roll from the bottom up. All done! :)


This recipe can easily be given a Greek twist, with just a few variations.

Greek Rice Wraps

The ingredients and directions are essentially the same, but with a few substitutions and additions.

• Substitute spinach wraps for flour tortillas.
• Substitute feta cheese for the shredded Mexican or Swiss cheese.*
• Don’t season the rice with the ranch mix, leave it plain.
• Cook the chicken in the white wine, but add a little bit (about 1-2 tsp) of lemon juice. Season with 1/2 the packet of ranch mix.
• Add sliced olives, if desired.
• Once all the ingredients have been prepared and are in the wrap, add Greek sauce to taste (recipe below) before rolling wrap. The Greek Sauce can also be used as a dipping sauce.

Greek Sauce:
1 c. plain Greek yogurt (can use low-fat or fat-free Greek yogurt)
1/2 - 1 tsp. lemon juice
Remaining ranch seasoning packet
pinch of salt and pepper

*Due to its strong flavor, a little bit of feta goes a long way! Use less feta than you would of the other cheese(s) for the original Ranch Rice Wraps.



A few other suggestions/variations for the original recipe:

• Grill the chicken, rather than cooking it in a skillet on the stove.
• Add cooked bacon or turkey bacon to the wrap, or wrap the chicken in bacon prior to cooking
• Substitute shrimp or strips of tofu for the chicken (Morning Star Farms fake chik’n strips also work well)
• For a vitamin boost, add bean sprouts
• For a bit of a kick, add a dash of crushed red peppers or a few jalapenos

Goodbyes and Hellos

I had fully intended to write my next post about friendship. It seemed only fitting that I address the three cornerstones of my blogs, right?!?! Well, sometimes life interferes...in  good and unexpected ways!

I had started my morning writing about friendship. Later that afternoon, family drama ensued and by the time all was said and done, my happy, friendship-y vibe had fizzled. I was upset and stressed, so I headed off to Zumba to sweat out the stress hormones. Sadly, after an hour of dancing around and shaking my booty to lots of ridiculously fast-paced Latin music (and looking like a spastic robot in the process...thank goodness there are no mirrors in that room for me to witness my own humiliation), I was still a grumpy, stress-y mess, albeit a much sweatier one.

On a side note, if you have never heard of Zumba, you should totally check it out: www.Zumba.com. It is the most intense non-exercise-like exercise I have ever done. I love it! But I digress.....(I’ll usually digress once or twice per blog entry...sorry)

So back to my original story...

As I am walking out of the gym, a cloud of grumpiness hanging over my head, there is a lady walking in front of me who had also attended the Zumba class. She made a comment about wanting an end to the nasty, rainy weather we’ve been getting lately. I concurred. We both laughed, and the conversation ensued something like this:

Me: I know! I am sooooo ready for the summer!

Her: The summer?!?! Shoot girl, I’ll just take some sun!

Me: Yeah, good point! I’ll take that, too!

Her: But let me tell ya , I think when the summer comes it’s gonna be a scorcher! I don’t mind it being 75 or 80 some days, but not every day!

Me: (sigh) Ugh! I know! When I lived in Florida it was hotter, but at least we had AC! Even when it’s cooler it’s a lot more miserable here without it!

Her: Get outta here girl! You from Florida? I’ll be from there soon.

Me: Oh yeah? Whereabouts in Florida?

Her: Just south of Tampa...in a place called Riverview.

Me: No kidding!!! That’s where we moved from! We still have a house there!

(insert mutual giggles)

Her: We just bought a house there!

Me: What subdivision?

Her: Ummm....ummm....hmmm...umm...Ha...no, huh...oh shoot, I don’t remember what it’s called. It starts with an H. But it’s in South Fork.

(insert moment of stunned silence on my part)

Me: (in high-pitched, squealy voice) Reeeeaaaaaalllllllyyyyyy?!?!?!?!?!?! That’s where WE have a house!!!!!!!!

(insert more girly giggles as we both ponder how small the world really is)

So we spent the next seven minutes or so discussing that area, the local schools, traffic, the mall, our families, our husbands, her kids, my lack thereof, and our general life stories.

Me: Well, I guess we’d better go before we get soaked (it had been raining the entire time we had this conversation standing outside by my car)

(we both say goodbye and turn away. She turns back around)

Her: Ohhhhhhhhhh come here girl! I love you girl! Come here and give me a big hug!!! Can’t wait to see ya next time!

(insert hug and more giggles)


And in the space of a 10 minute conversation and random twist of fate, that is how a friendship was formed.  =)

This isn’t the first time I have had a random encounter. I’ve been amazed at how many people I’ve run into again, years after I assumed we had said our final goodbyes. There was the time, my sophomore year of high school, that I ended up sitting behind a girl in Spanish class in Satellite Beach, Florida that I’d last seen three years before when we were in middle school together in Virginia. There was the time in Tampa, four years after I graduated high school, that Jared and I walked into a Coldstone Creamery and ran into an old friend from my senior year. Now, five years after that encounter, she lives in the village next to mine here in Germany. The funny thing is that she isn’t even military! Her boyfriend is German. What are the odds?!?! Another time, shortly after moving here to Germany, I walked into the commissary and saw a guy that I was sure I had attended 9th grade with when I lived in Germany the first time...a decade before! Jared, at that point sick of hearing me say “Hmmm....I think I know that person...I think I went to school with that person!” sighed in exasperation and said “Yeah, I know. You say that about everyone. If you are so sure, go talk to him!” You’d think, after all the weird coincidences, he would know better than to challenge me on that score! :) So, feeling like an idiot (after all, we’d both aged after 10+ years), I walked up to the guy and asked if he was Mike so and so from 9th grade. Sure enough, he was! Not only that, but he knew of two other people from our class that were also stationed at this same base in Germany. The hubby hasn’t questioned me since!

I could go on and on...Jared and I ran into a mutual friend from Air Force ROTC, again at the commissary. We ran into another acquaintance from ROTC at one of the three gyms here. One of my best friends from MacDill AFB and her husband moved here to Ramstein six months after we moved did. A year later, more friends from MacDill arrived. Now two more are on their way within the next few months.

So this is why...despite the ups and downs; the nights alone; the worry when my husband is gone; the attending weddings, baptisms, graduations and many, many other “couple” events alone; the packing up of my life into boxes every three years; and the multitude of goodbyes...I love the military. For every goodbye, there is also a hello. It will be found in the most random of places...the gym, the parking lot, in line at the BX, heck, even sometimes in line at the bathroom...but it is all these hellos that make the goodbyes okay. Because sometimes, when we least expect it, there will be an “until we meet again.”

Friendship, Wine and Laughter

Friendship, wine and laughter....three things that can get us through the ups and downs of life. They can make the hard times bearable and the good times even better! A few weeks ago I started debating whether to jump on the bandwagon with this whole blogging thing. While I enjoy reading my friends blogs, I didn’t really think my life was that exciting....certainly not blogworthy! :) I don’t really have a focus, goal or hobby to write about. My friend, Michelle, keeps us posted on her adorable kids. My ridiculously creative and talented friend, Jaime, always has amazing craft projects to write about, as well as her super-cute son. My other friends, Marisa and Nicole, are amazing cooks, and share their fantastic recipes with the blogosphere. I don’t really have any of those. I don’t cook that much (or that well for that matter!) and I’m not particularly crafty. I don’t have kids (though sometimes my husband may qualify....sorry honey, love you!). I do have four cats, although I don’t really foresee creating an entire blog about them. Actually, those of you that know me might argue that I probably could. Yes, I am the crazy married cat lady at age 26. But I digress....

So I struggled with what to write about and whether I should even write or not. I used to love to write, but somewhere along the line of growing into an “adult,” I lost many of my creative hobbies. There was always something else to do....college, then marriage, then a master's, then moving, then working, and of course the ever-present housework. I think I kind of lost the things I enjoy, the things that used to make me “me” along the way.

Yesterday, I decided to take a step towards joining the blogging bandwagon. I created an Blogspot account. Then I tried to come up with a blog name...

C’est La Vie

Taken.

Counting Sheep

Taken.

That’s Life

Taken.

Just Another Military Spouse

Taken.

C’est La Guerre

Taken

Seriously?  (could you tell I was just a wee bit frustrated at this point?!?!)

Yes, even that was taken!

On and on it went! I must have gone through a good 20-30 blog names and everything was TAKEN!!! Argggghhhhh!!!! So in my classiest, most eloquent manner, I said “Screw this” and logged off of Blogspot, deciding that fate did not want me on the blogosphere.

Then today there was a little “family drama” and I got fired up enough to do something about it. Thus the “SMSD” blog was created (and subsequently deleted) as an outlet for me to vent. However, writing the little venting session about my family drama reminded me of how much I use to love to write and of how therapeutic it can be.

It made me kind of sad, though. I wanted a happier blog, not one entirely devoted to getting certain family members to make smarter decisions. While I was in the midst of typing up my first posting for the SMSD blog, I got a message from one of my closest, most amazing friends. I just said goodbye to her and her husband yesterday. They are getting ready to move back to the States, and it was a very hard goodbye. They are in Italy at the moment, taking one last European vacation before heading to Boston. Her message said something to the effect of “I miss you, I’m consuming mass quantities of wine, and I wish you were here to consume them with me. Thank you for the last two years of friendship” Reading that, especially when I was so wrapped up in the negativity of my family drama, made me laugh. And that is when the lightbulb went on. She encapsulated three important survival tools to life in one short comment: friendship, wine and laughter!

So now I had my blog name (amazingly enough it was AVAILABLE), but what to write, what to write? I certainly don’t have anything exciting and dramatic to add to the existing body of blog literature. But sometimes the most mundane things in life are the ones that we can relate to the best. So that’s what I am going to write about....the mundane things in life. These are the things that shape us and our families, sometimes without us realizing it. Although, I have to admit...I may work the cats in there every once in a while..... ;-)

So as I write this, I’m raising a glass....to this new blog (we’ll see if I ever actually update it), to life, to finding myself along the way, to change, to the mundane.....and most importantly, to friendship, wine and laughter!