Cheesy Vegetable Chowder

Matthew and I made an amazing cheesy veggie chowder last week. The recipe I'm sharing serves about 32 so make sure you have a big pot. If you're only making it for two people, it might be a good idea to halve the recipe.

Ingredients

* 7 cups water
* 9 cubes chicken bouillon, crumbled
* 6 potatoes, cubed
* 2 cloves garlic, minced
* 1 large white onion, chopped
* 1 bunch celery, chopped
* 3 cups chopped carrots
* 2 (15 ounce) cans whole kernel corn
* 2 (15 ounce) cans peas
* 2 cups chopped fresh green beans
* 1/2 cup butter
* 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
* 3 cups milk
* 1 pound processed cheese, cubed

Directions

1. In a large pot over medium heat, combine water, bouillon, potatoes and garlic. Bring to a boil, then stir in onion, celery and carrots. Reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes.
2. Stir in corn, peas and green beans and continue to cook on low heat.
3. Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Whisk in flour all at once to form a roux and let cook 10 seconds. Whisk in milk, a little at a time, and cook, stirring, until mixture is thick and bubbly. Stir in cheese until melted. Pour this mixture into the large soup pot, stir well and heat through.


Roux-ing...it was a new skill for us... a little weird, but fun!


Everything all mixed together


Finished product in the bowls. Yum!!

Too much snow!

Today it is snowing, yet again in Pittsburgh. Personally, I'm a fan of winter, winter activities and being outside. I am not, however, a fan of driving on twisty-turny roads with two-wheel drive and limited experience. Also, it's almost March, can the snow just end, please? Besides, the city doesn't know what to do with itself. Needless to say, I stayed home from school today. I was supposed to be in for an aide at Burchfield Primary but I was just super worried about getting there, especially because there isn't a "nice" way to get there. I'll miss out on the money, but personally I'd rather be safe, just saying.

Last weekend was the Winter Party at CMU. Jessi, Matthew and I were on the decorating committee and spent many hours coordinating and organizing decorations/orders/flowers etc. Thankfully it didn't take us too long to take care of things on Saturday morning so we were able to have a few hours to get ready before dinner and the dancing. The Twentieth Century Club is stunning! Even the bathroom was decorated so lavishly. I loved it! It would be an awesome place to have a wedding reception! Lots of room to eat, dance and hallways and floors for kids to run around. After dinner there was dancing which quickly turned into Indian music hour; one of the Indian guys brought his iPod up to the DJ who continued to play that music just so people would be out there dancing. As Matthew said, "I think we were just out-cultured." We, the silly Americans, did the Macarena, Cupid Shuffle and Cha Cha Slide. I'll put some pictures up when I figure out how to upload pictures using Linux

Valentine's Day was very uneventful. Matthew had a migraine in the morning and I worked 1-9:30. I feel so horrible that he gets migraines and there's absolutely nothing I can do for him except bring him a glass of water, an extra blanket, tuck him into bed and leave him alone. He did go to the doctor last week and got some medicine to try. My friend Emily carries around Excedrin Migraine in her purse in case her finance(!!) Michael needs one. Last night Matthew asked me to carry one of his pills in my purse all the time, which I'll gladly do. I want him to not feel worse, especially if we're out and about.

My friend Emily got engaged on Valentine's Day!! Now I think proposing on Valentine's Day isn't the most original thing in the world, but they're doing the long distance thing and they weren't going to be seeing each other again until May, so it's totally warranted. I'm so excited for her and for Mike! They've been together for such a long time and I'm so glad that they're making wedding plans. October 1, 2011 can't come soon enough! She asked me to stand up for her and I feel truly honored and privledged to even be part of her special day. I'm also psyched because it means we'll talk at least once a month, which is great because both of us kinda suck at playing phone tag:) The only bad part is that I'm in Pittsburgh, far away from EC and the day to day planning. I can't just spurt-of-the-moment go wedding dress shopping with her, it has to be planned around when I'm home and stuff like that. I'm not going to be in EC again until May (Jake's graduation) but I'm going to do the very best I can from here because Emily deserves the very best. I can't wait :)

Some friends of Matthew and I are expecting their first child in September! It's weird to me that people our age are having babies; I mean I know that I very well could have a child by now, based on my age, but personally, I'm just not ready. It's all well and good (and totally normal) when my cousins have children but friends that I know having children just seems really out of the ordinary. I asked Jessi if she thought it was a little strange to have her friend Callie (who sounds amazing btw) having a baby and she admitted that at first it was a little strange. *phew* I'm not totally abnormal for thinking that. I mean N&A got married in October 2008, got a few pets, bought a house, have stable jobs...I guess a baby is the next step! Congrats to them and best of luck!

I can't believe the Olympics are over on Sunday. I must say that the past two weeks have been amazing; I'm so glad that I'm not in school, with homework, projects and studying to do (like I did in 2006) so I can enjoy the Games! Matthew and I watch them every night (for the most part). I got really sucked into Snowboard Cross, it was so interesting! I think I like the Winter Olympics better than the Summer Games; there are less sports, but I enjoy watching almost all of the sports/events (Curling, though a totally MN/WI sport, doesn't hold my attention the way skiing and snowboarding do...also Ice Dancing could totally be removed from the Winter Games, this coming from a girl who actually likes Figure Skating). It will definitely be interesting to watch the Summer Games in London. I'm wondering where on earth they are going to fit all of the incoming athletes and spectators, since London is already a really busy city.

In nerd updates, I switched my computer to use Linux instead of Windows as an operating system. So far, so good. My dinosaur of a computer, okay it's from 2005, is running a little faster than it was with Windows, but I'm sure that I'm going to have to get a new one within the next year. Here's to the winning the lottery (or maybe the job lottery).

Last night Matthew, John, Jessi and I went to see Broadway Rocks with Marvin at the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. It was an absolutely wonderful show and Heinz Hall is a stunning building, inside and out! The orchestra was accompanied with 4 phenomenal vocalists who have been on Broadway! Check it out! I loved it and got to be really nerdy about musicals, surrounded by other people who were excited about them as well. I spotted this show in July last year when I was looking for cool stuff to do in Pittsburgh. Thank goodness we actually got to go!

I'm wishing and thinking Spring. Hopefully it'll arrive shortly, without flooding the entire city when all of the snow melts! Spring!

Snowpocalypse!

Holy Crap! It snowed 20 inches in 24 hours. Friday it started snowing and we woke up Saturday to see everything buried under about 20 inches of snow. I've never seen some much snow fall in such a short period of time. It's insane! I couldn't even go to work at Kohl's today because our street isn't plowed yet.

I've never seen so many people out and about in our neighborhood as we did yesterday; we walked to Home Depot to get a shovel and saw tons of people shoveling out their vehicles parked on the street. It's pretty snow and makes Pittsburgh look lovely! The buses aren't running, power is still out for many people in the city and there was a water shortage yesterday. There's definitely a state of emergency in Pittsburgh, but people seem to be handling it quite well. There's not a lot that we can do when we're snowed in. I said to Matthew today that if we were in Wisconsin, the roads would be clear and our street would have been plowed twice.

I filed my taxes on Friday and can't wait to get the return. I'm hoping to get PA and MN done today but we'll see; they seem a little more complicated:) Oh well, I'll call Dad if I have questions since he's my go-to guy with tax questions.

I’ve been subbing pretty consistently this week, which I’m thankful for. I’m getting all of my PA Educator stuff finished up today. It’s a website where you put all of your teacher information, experience and clearances and districts can contact you for employment or substituting. It’s also a fantastic way to find jobs in PA since I think all (or almost all) of the districts use it. On Thursday I heard about a long-term sub position opening up at the high school in the English department. I’m really hoping that I can at least get an interview; eve if I don’t get the job, it would be nice to have the interview experience.


The view from Negley down our street


There was not a car hiding in this big pile of snow



Pretty trees!


The car before we cleaned it off!


Matthew was excited to have the car cleaned off!

Big Update

Sorry for the lack of posting; I've been busy with school and work and getting this squared away in Pittsburgh again.
1. I've started subbing at the Shaler district, the place where I was subbing as an aide before. The teaching pays more money, though the work isn't as interesting because I'm not chasing around younger kids all day. High schoolers are so interesting, especially what they talk about. I don't remember hearing stories about parties, drugs, pregnancies and kids getting kicked out of prom because they brought some coke to the dance (not the lovely carbonated beverage...)
2. Things are getting pretty invovled with the Winter Party decorating committee. It's becoming a little frustrating, but I'm glad to be doing something active, like committe work, to occupy my time.
3. Matthew and I took a trip to Harrisburg and Hershey, PA over the MLK weekend! It was a blast and super fun to have a mini-vacation
4. My cousin Meg and her husband Mike had their third child on Tuesday! Welcome George Sullivan Hatton! You are entering into a huge family that is full to the seams with love for new babies. My other cousin Mike and his wife Jess are expecting twins this spring as well! Hooray for more babies!!
5. Jessi and I spent this most recent Saturday having a Girl's Day In. We made pancakes (and grits, yum!), watched her wedding DVD (which I loved!) and baked some delicious chocolate chip cookies from scratch. It was a wonderful way to spend a Saturday (not to mention the Friday night of staying up late with popcorn, beers, girltalk and "Sex and the City"). It reminded me of being in college and how much I loved my roommates and how much I do miss them. I loved waking up on Saturday, making breakfast (or lunch) and chatting about our Friday nights or what was planned for that Saturday. It's different living with Matthew, not bad, just different.
6. Kohl's has scaled back our hours so I'm lucky to work twice during the week. Thankfully, substitute teaching has been plentiful so I haven't had to worry too much. Thankfully, all the bills are still being paid.
7. I bought a book called Nightlight which is a parody of Twilight written by some snarks at Harvard. It is HILARIOUS! Matthew and I were laughing really hard last night when we read the first chapter out loud.
8. Trying to eat healthy and exercise more so that I can be healthy and have more energy; going to bed earlier will also probably help that. 5:30 is very early to get up to get ready for teaching each day.
9. Happy (almost) birthday Jessi! I'm so glad we've become such good friends! I don't know what I'd do without you:) Loves!
10. An even ten points always looks good on an update, though I don't have another bullet point...lol