Large-sagna

For the PW girls, I tried out PW's lasagna recipe the other day and... umm... be warned. I mostly followed the recipe, but subbed out the beef for ground turkey and the breakfast sausage for zucchini and spinach. The second sub is because I'm not sure why all recipes are either meat OR veggie lasagna. Why discriminate when you can put the sides right in the main dish? I digress.

PW's recipe has a couple kinks that I'll be able to work out better on the second try I think. First, when I think large rectangular dish, I think normal 9x13 pyrex lasagna size. NO! I got halfway through construction and had filled the pan. So I had to slide/scrape/mangle the bottom into an even larger pyrex so I could fit more in. At least once I put the second layer on it looked normalish and all cooks together in the oven anyway. But the second problem, where do all the noodles go? I only used one box of lasagna noodles but PW's recipe if you follow her directions only uses 12, 12! noodles. I ended up throwing more in with an extra layer and 5 noodle layers instead of 4, but still had 7 noodles sitting on the counter. I don't get it.

All things I can deal with better when I make it the second time now that I know and oh yes, it turned out tasting awesome still so we will be making it again.

Side note: Helga the audi is FINALLY home but will have to go back since one wheel wasn't un-rashed and the alignment is totally off. :(

Repeatability

From the National Institute for Standards and Technology, the definition of repeatability is "closeness of the agreement between the results of successive measurements of the same measurand carried out under the same conditions of measurement." This is a concept we deal with a lot as engineers and basically means your results are true when you can make it do the same thing over and over again.

Well, yesterday, to demonstrate to Daddy that I'm not crazy. I had Zara in the pack 'n play and got her to roll over from tummy to back 5 consecutive times. So she is rolling over and easily, but it is a location dependent event. I think it has to do with being on her tummy in the pack n play where she can't see anything. John alleges that since the pack 'n play is 'softer' (not really its just a thin pad in there, not a trampoline), she isn't really rolling over. I'd like him to break out the durometer and determine which surfaces qualify for the rolling over test then.

This concludes my geeked out baby analysis today.

My Way or the Highway Milestone

This morning I was getting Zara dressed for school and, along with her aweseme pink flame baby legs, I put her in a brown shirt that has a button on the back of the neck. When I flipped her over to her tummy to close that button, little miss lifted her head back and pushed off to stop me. Apparently, we can and are capable of rolling over, but will only do so to stop mommy from buttoning her shirt. So that's how its going to be is it, little girl? I didn't get a repeat performance on the second try, but I'm calling it official, she rolled over.

Le Yummy

Tuesday was my birthday (yup, Virginia day) but at least I didn't get stuck in Atlanta where the weather was bad and flights were being cancelled. Thankfully the bad stuff moved through earlier in the day and the evening flights were still on. But I made it home and my birthday present requested from John was waiting... a shiny new Flame Orange Le Creuset dutch oven. Yay!!

Now I'm trying to decide what to make first. Hmmm... made chili when it was cold recently so that's out. Maybe my favorite roast with spicy roasted tomatoes or a big pot of soup. Time to surf the Pioneer Woman and Food Network sites for some new and fabulous recipes.

A picture for Alicia. Notice PW has her green Le Crueset in the cover pic. I've wanted one of these for awhile, tired of having to sear in one pot and then transfer to the croc and stuff. Our new oven has a slow cook feature too, so I want to try out a true "1 pot" slow cook meal.

Sleep Away

In about 30 minutes I am headed to Hobby for a trip to NASA Langley, a very last minute trip. I got a call Friday telling me I should plan a trip for this week, only I didn't know the test rig I am going to work on is being packed for shipping Wednesday and Thursday, so I have to be there tomorrow to test or not at all. This test is for the crew laptop application for the STORRM (can't remember the acronym) test that is flying on STS-134 (a.k.a. the LAST ever shuttle flight). The test is for the new docking sensor that Orion is using or at least plans to use assuming we don't get put down the toilet by our "bold" and "game-changing" new NASA direction. Given how high profile this experiment now is, I've been directed to take over all the application testing to make sure it works and we have a very short timeline to complete everything.

But besides the work stuff, this is my first night away from Zara. I'm taking a pretty awful set of flights to minimize time away since we are still feeding. Given the last minute details worked out this morning to go, I am on a 4pm flight arriving at 10pm EST in Newport News, VA. I will work tomorrow and then catch a 6pm flight back to Hobby arriving at 11pm tomorrow night. Ugh. Incidentally, sorry Heather, totally would have called you to get together but there is literally no time. But I'm fairly certain the next 36hrs will be harder on me than her, but perhaps hardest on John who will experience night time feedings for the first time. LOL.

Here's a picture of Zara I took this weekend that I liked. Seems like a lot of pictures since they catch her mid motion end up with awkward facial expressions, or a startled deer in the headlights look. But this one is the face we see most often, direct and interested in what's going on, like she has something to say just doesn't know how.

Too Slow Joe

As a fan of Top Chef, we've been watching some of the cheftestants fawn over their sous vide slow cooker for endless challenges. For the uninitiated, sous vide is when the food is vaccum sealed in plastic and then cooked for hours in a tepid water bath. Supposedly, it seals in the flavor but for me it always kinda seemed like you forget to add flavor. I mean really is plain chicken good? No, you have to add salt, pepper, and other stuff to make it really tasty.

Well now they are bringing sous vide to home cooks. Me, I think this is a kitchen electric I can do without. I think grilling and what not does more to add flavor then it loses in juice.

Sous-Vide Home Cooking: Really Slow Food

Kick Me

John was on his way from work to pick up Zara Wednesday and never made it. He had exited 45 at El Dorado when someone leaving the shopping center there decided they wanted to be in the far left lane. So they crossed three lanes of traffic and plowed straight into John (driving my car) since they must not have had their eyes open. It's not like there was anything there for John to hide behind.

But poor Helga. I think she must have an invisible kick me sign on her. I've only had her a year and a half and she is my first new car ever, but someone has it out for her. So far she has been tagged in a parking lot and had her left front corner dented (no note obviously from whomever the jerk was), dented by someone who must have been very angry when they opened their car door (again no note), and now she's had her right side rather brutally bashed in. This time John had to follow the woman who did it all the way to Baybrook Mall before she pulled over. Today she goes to the shop and the person's insurance adjuster is examining her. They wanted us to take her to their preferred shop, but she's going to our guy Mike that we've used to do our performance upgrades and is really good. Fat chance I'm going to take her to someone else's insurance shop. I hope this is the last time Helga gets dented.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Grab-n-Go

Time to post some new picks for Z instead of just "I hate the new NASA budget" posts. Zara started really grabbing at toys and shoving them in her mouth. She is figuring out what her paws are and how to use them. In particular, she likes the orange monkey hanging in her gym which is getting most of her attention. Since she is sleeping alone now, we've had to dress her more warmly at night and we also get to use the super cute present from Remi and France. She is happily counting sheep in her fleece outfit and loves to grab at the faces on her toes.

Letter Rip

Given the previous three posts, I am sufficiently ticked off enough to write a letter to my elected representatives for the first time ever. I hope you are too. But, if you aren't ticked off enough to author a letter yourself, maybe you are enough to take my letter change the names and addresses and send it in. I hope you can do even this much because our space program is important whether you know it or not and surely it's worth a piece of paper and a stamp to you to save.

Download my letter here at Google Docs.

Find your representative's and senator's addresses here.

Save Spaceflight!