Pork products and arugula

Hey, A.

I can't believe it's already after 7. I had ambitious plans for tonight, but now it seems unlikely I'll do everything I had hoped.

After my blog break I was focused and productive today. I corrected a big stack of lab reports (1/2 of what I need to get done by tomorrow) and did some planning for the week. I figured I could knock off 10 of 20 more lab reports tonight, and finish the last 10 during study hall tomorrow. I guess I still can, but I was hoping to do more me stuff. More?...well...

I left at contract time to get home in time for UPS (pictures I ordered from shutterfly), which attempted a delivery on Friday. While waiting for the doorbell I looked through epicurious and a Giada cookbook to find a recipe for dinner. I didn't want leftover chili, I didn't want a sandwich. I wanted pasta. I wanted to use arugula. Maybe fresh grape tomatoes, maybe canned diced. Maybe sausage, maybe leftover bacon, maybe both. Or neither. By 4:30 I had looked through my summer photos and was cooking. In the end I created a dish that indeed combined my loves of pork products and arugula. I made a delicious pasta (penne) tossed in a sauce that had ground pork, bacon, garlic, roasted garlic and onion diced tomatoes, a little red wine, thyme, oregano, pecorino romano cheese, and arugula--tossed in at the end, just enough heat to wilt it. It was delicious. Really delicious.

After eating and cleaning up I spent about an hour figuring out bills and budget (always depressing), and now I'm hardly in the mood to correct. Meanwhile, I still have to get some food together for lab tomorrow, and lunch to make. And what I really want to do is write some more, tell you about my thing with lemons, my happy lemon topiaries. I thought about writing elsewhere as well, and reading a little EB tonight. I guess for tonight I should be grateful for my culinary creation, for the fact that my home still feels like a comfortable, welcoming home--and, even more basically, that I could pay my bills. Tomorrow is another day--with a hair appointment and happy hour planned. And when I come home tomorrow, I'll be able to put my feet up and read and write until bedtime. No grades over my head. Sounds like a plan.

Hope you're all having a good visit with C.

Take care. Love, Barb