Bread Sticks

Boy, did my house smell good when these came out of the oven!  Garlic and parmesan...........mmm, mmm, good! (My apologies to Campbell's soup)

Of course I had to post this picture on Facebook and taunt people with it...I was thinking mostly of my children, who know very well what these smell and taste like!  Of course, when they were at home, we needed a double batch (although Mr. Mahan would argue that we STILL need a double batch--especially since these are already gone!)

Here's the recipe.  Credit goes to my friend Shellie Schultz, who probably brought them to a church dinner oh, so many years ago, when we were in the Broomfield 2nd Ward family, and then graciously shared the recipe.  Thanks, Shellie!

375 degrees                  20 minutes

1 TBSP yeast
2 TBSP sugar
1 1/2 cups warm water
1/2 tsp salt
3 cups flour (plus more for kneading)
1 stick margarine
garlic powder
Parmesan cheese

Dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water.  Add salt and flour.  Knead lightly. Rest on floured board for 10 minutes. Melt margarine in 9 x 13 pan or larger (You see I use a cookie sheet).  Knead out air bubbles, and divide dough into 18 sticks, rolled in buttered pan.  Raise 20 minutes; sprinkle with garlic powder and parmesan (to taste!).  Bake 20 minutes.  Voila!

Told you it was easy!  Enjoy!

Cindy

Diary of a School District Employee on Spring Break: Day 3

https://youtu.be/bxS9N-npE2Q

"Monday, Monday,so good to meee............."  Well, it is when you're on vacation!!  My Monday was quiet and relaxing.  Here's the scoop:

*Actually showered and got dressed before noon
*Finished filling dishwasher and ran it
*Mikey came home for lunch and we enjoyed sitting down and watching "Love It or List It" during his break
*Made homemade breadsticks (recipe to be posted in the next blog entry), Hearty Harvest soup (a yummy Pintrest find), and cupcakes for our dinner and to take to a gentleman in our ward who is still recovering from a fall he took off a roof a couple of months ago.  Needed to empty dishwasher, fill and run again after all that cooking!
*Ran a couple of errands..dropped off Mikey's only suit coat at the dry cleaners, made a small deposit at the bank to prevent overdrawing...you know, that kind of stuff.
*Checked Facebook and my Words with Friends games repeatedly....
*Facetime conversations with Stef, Jen and Lisa, all within an hour.  Feast or famine...I'm home all day, but they're used to calling me after 4 when they know I'm home from work.
*A couple of Big Bang Theory reruns, and it's off to bed.

Thrilling, eh?  I know, I know, you wish you were me.

Diary of a School District Employee on Spring Break: Day 2

And just like that, it's Sunday evening.  Remember how I said that I love the Friday evening part of the weekend, when it all lies before me?  Well, here's the runner-up--a Sunday evening when I DON'T have to get up and go to work the next day.  Aaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh..............

Without further ado, my activities from Sat afternoon through now:

*DID scrub tub, DID shower and shave legs
*Got Taco Bell for lunch....I don't know why I torture myself.  Our Taco Bell is infuriatingly slow.  Two cars in the drive-through, nobody in the lobby, and I still put the car into park and checked email while I waited for my food.
*Hangout chat with my girls to discuss our Book Club selection this month.  If you want to know how I feel about this month's selection, "The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out A Window and Disappeared", check out my review on Goodreads.  The one I'll write tomorrow.
*Fixed french toast for dinner--this is notable only because it saved the life of our toaster.  Yesterday I threw it away because it wouldn't catch and heat up.  Well, I plugged my mini griddle into the same outlet to make french toast (I do love breakfast for dinner!), and it didn't heat up either.  (LIGHT BULB!)--Sure enough, that outlet has a safety switch on it, and it had popped.  So I pushed the button back in, the griddle heated up, and Michael went to the trash and retrieved the toaster.  He even called me a genius.  THAT needs to be recorded for posterity!
*Re-read "Holes" (by Louis Sachar).  Every year since I became a school librarian, we have watched "Holes" during library time with the 3rd, 4th and 5th graders.  I started that because I was evicted from the library for the first couple of years that I worked there so it could be used for state testing.  Not much else to do when you have library in the classroom, so I picked that movie.  If I do show movies during library time, I tell the kids that I will only choose ones that started as books.  "Holes" is perfect...it's funny, it's clever, sweet, and there's nothing I enjoy more than watching the kids' faces when all the plot pieces start to come together.  SO, after watching it 12 times each March for the last 4 years, I figured it was time to revisit the written story.  Still love it.

Sunday:

*Got up about 7:30, right after Michael headed to church for his meetings.
*Played on computer a bit
*Watched "Music and the Spoken Word" on the computer--it's one of the things I like about 11 am church, that I can watch that beforehand.
*Showered, dressed, etc.
*Ate some cereal, and remembered an hour later that today was Fast Sunday.  I hate it when that happens.
*Went to church, my lesson went well.  Stayed after for choir practice.
*Came home, changed clothes, went outside and pulled out the pool for Viva.  Filled it.  It was in the low 70's today--heaven.
*We ate dinner early, almost as soon as Michael got home from church.
*Plugged in the first Hobbit movie.  I slept through about 1.5 hours of it, but at least I woke up in time for Bilbo and Gollum to play Riddles in the Dark. Pivotal.
*Crocheted on the Guzman afghan.  This thing is monstrous, and feels like I'm NEVER going to finish it.

So there you go.  The weekend is over.  All weekends disappear as quickly as this one did, but I sure don't mind as much when there are vacation days ahead.  Onward!

Diary of a School District Employee on Spring Break: Day 1

I got started on this blog life almost 3 years ago, when someone posted a fun question of the day blog challenge for a month.  I was in Broomfield, helping my oldest after the birth of her 2nd baby, and figured --What the heck--I might as well jump on this technology train, too.

I've enjoyed it.  It's been a neat way to share my thoughts with others, but mostly, with myself.  So, today I decided I will chronicle my 2015 Spring Break.  Entry #1:

I count my break starting from Friday night.  Friday nights are the best, anyway, when you work a M-F job, because the weekend, with all it's possibilities, lies before you.  It's magical.  So I ate dinner with Michael, finally changed out the photos from 2013 that filled my collage frames in the living room (the 2014 selections are a few highlights from Powderhorn.  It truly was the pinnacle of the year), watched a little NCAA Elite Eight basketball, and, when I got tired of that, came back to the bedroom to see what else was on TV.  Nuthin.  Had a nice chat with Holly, and then decided to surf Netflix on my iPad to see what looked interesting.

Winner: Sense and Sensibility.  Someday, if anyone wants to have a "Book/Movie" chat about that movie, please invite me.  I have lots to say about it.  For now, let's just say that the actors are amazing, the story is epic, and Emma Thompson deserved that Oscar for best adapted screenplay. Oh, and then there's the interesting fact that at least 5 of those actors appeared in Harry Potter movies later on. Cool.

So now it's Saturday.  Slept in (well, stayed in bed) until 8.  Yippee! It's now noon, and I've accomplished the following: (not in order)

*Folded clean laundry
*Hung up laundry
*Washed CPAP equipment (I hate that job)
*Poured Drano down one of our bathroom sinks, then boiled a pan of water 1.5 hours later and poured it down the sink.  Much better.
*Opened front door and several windows to let in spring
*Started new load of laundry
*Washed dirty pots/pans (Another of my hated chores)
*Threw away the toaster (it won't catch/heat up)
*Planned my lesson for Sunday School
*Watched my cute great-nephew on Facebook (Cathy's grandson)
*Made my bed

Huh.  Looks pretty productive, laid out like that.  Yay, me.  But here's what I hope to do in the second half of the day:

*Scrub out my tub (I already sprinkled the Comet...I have to do that, cuz it MAKES me clean it before I can shower)
*Shower and shave my legs (TMI!?)
*Video conference with my daughters to hold our 2nd monthly Book Club chat
*Hang up the remaining Easter decorations (Guzmans are coming for Easter--gotta be ready!)

Having guests for the weekend, and Easter weekend at that, is going to be my main motivator for the week.  Gotta clean for the grandkids.

Will this entry benefit anyone but me?  Nope.  But maybe, someday, as I'm reading old posts, I'll look back fondly on what I accomplished during this week.  And hopefully, I'll feel just as satisfied with what I DIDN'T do, too.

And that's the way it was.  Saturday, March 28, 2015.