Skillet Lasagna

I'm making this tonight, and someone requested the recipe, so here it is.


SERVES 4-6

Ingredients

3 (14.5 ounce) cans whole peeled tomatoes
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, minced
salt
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 lb ground meat mix (whatever mix of ground beef or turkey, or ground pork, or sausage that you desire)
10 curly-edged lasagna noodles, broken into 2-inch lengths (about 8 oz)
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated
pepper
3/4 cup whole milk ricotta cheese
3 tbsp minced fresh basil

Directions

1. Pour the tomatoes with their juice into a blender, pulse until no big chunks remain (about 12 pulses)
   
2. Heat the oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat until shimmering. Add the onion and 1/2 teaspoon salt and cook until softened, about 5 minutes.
3. Stir in the garlic and red pepper flakes and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the ground meat and cook, breaking up the meat into small pieces with a wooden spoon, until no longer pink, about 5 minutes.
   
4. Scatter the noodle pieces evenly over the meat. Pour the processed tomatoes over the pasta. Cover and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to medium-low and continue to simmer, stirring often, until the pasta is tender, about 20 minutes.
5. Remove the skillet from the heat and stir in half the mozzarella and half the Parmesan. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Dot heaping tablespoons of the ricotta over the noodles, then sprinkle with the remaining mozzarella and Parmesan. Cover the skillet and let stand off the heat until the cheese melts, 2 to 4 minutes.
6. Sprinkle with the basil and serve.

This recipe is from Cook's Illustrated's The Best Skillet Recipes. One thing I'd like to add (after making this a couple of times) is you have to get past the mindset of lasagna layers. It felt weird to put all the broken noodles in one layer on top of the meat, because it's so ingrained in me to make lasagna in layers. But since you're stirring it all up as it cooks, there are no layers. That's also why it's so important to break the noodles up into small pieces. The bigger they are, the harder it is to stir, so don't feel sheepish about breaking those noodles up!

It's kind of weird to make lasagna in a skillet, but it turns out great and delicious, and in less than 30 minutes. The rest of my family are spice-wimps, so I always leave out the red pepper flakes, but I thought I'd include the whole recipe for those that want it all. Also, the fresh basil at the end is a nice garnish, but if you don't have any fresh basil, it tastes fine without it. For presentation's sake, though, the bright green makes it look beautiful.

Good luck!

Sofia's Junior Youth song

https://youtu.be/k0YJxOPjytk

Update on the Job Hunt

It's been a while since I posted, so I thought I'd give an update on the job front. Most of you know we're planning to move this summer, but you may be wondering how those plans are going.

We are looking at three places that would get us closer to family: Florida, North Carolina, and Costa Rica.

Costa Rica: I have sent out my resume to all the English-speaking private schools that would suit me. I've sent resumes out twice actually. I've only heard back from one school, which informed me that they have no positions yet for next year.

Florida: My certificate is current and I have applied to Alachua County. I've been in contact with the principal from Gainesville High School (I taught there for 7 years), but it's still too early to have any idea on staffing for next year.

North Carolina: I almost have my application for certification complete (waiting for one more document from Putnam County). I've already applied for a job. North Carolina has a state-wide online teacher application that all the school districts use. The area we're aiming for, the Research Triangle area, has several school districts. One centralized application means I don't have to fill out multiple applications, which is nice. Once I get that form from Putnam County, I'll mail in everything. They said it takes about 2 weeks to process, so I could have my North Carolina teaching certificate by mid-February.

I don't know about going to any job fairs yet. It gets a little tricky when you're 2000 miles away.

I'll accept the first job offer I get.

So that's the status of job hunting.

In terms of our house...that's even more complicated. Here are the options, with the chances of each happening:

1. Sell our house for what we owe...0% chance, based on what identical models have been selling for.

2. Sell our house for less than we owe, i.e. short sale...decent chance. This will hurt our credit some, and requires a lot of negotiation with the bank, realtor, buyer...oh yeah, you have to have a buyer to have a short sale. And our house is not market ready yet. We're working on it.

3. Rent our house...very slim chance. I have learned enough about being a landlord (just through research) to know that I don't want to attempt renting from a long distance. So that means hiring a property manager. Based on what houses are renting for, we would not be able to collect enough in rent to pay our mortgage and a property manager's fee. The final nail in the coffin is all the horror stories I've heard about renting, such as things getting broken, needing replacing, rent not being paid, etc. We don't have the kind of savings to be able to cover expenses and late/missed rent payments. I used to think renting would be an easy solution, but now I'd rather do the dreaded #4 than rent.

4. Just walk away. Foreclosure. Obviously this would be devastating to our credit, which has always been good. But is it an option we'd be willing to choose in order to move? Well, nothing is off the table.

Geez, when I read over this post so far, it seems like this is the worst time to move. In a way, it is. But we really, really want to move this summer. This is the time. Sofia is starting high school next year, and I don't want to move while she's in high school. I know people do it all the time, but I don't want to do it to my children. High school is hard enough without having to start over midway through. And since I cringe at the idea of being stuck in the desert for 4 more years, 2000 miles away from family...it's gotta be this summer.

Decade in Review

A friend of mine posted a "decade in review" blog. I thought it was a good idea so I'm going to attempt it. I'll try to keep it short.

2000: Israel...the van...Alex

When the year 2000 began, my advanced TV Production class at Gainesville High School prepared to produce another video for the Universal Studios High School Video Competition. We had made the semi-finals for the second year in a row and would be shooting a video on the Universal backlot. This period was the peak of my best years of teaching...the competition, traveling to Orlando to shoot the video, winning for a second year in a row...it was all more fun than I could have ever imagined. That summer, though Cristina was "heavy with child," we went to Israel with my parents for Baha'i Pilgrimage. After a few days in Chicago, we came back to Gainesville where my friend Steve came to visit from Scotland, staying at our house. We went to our 10 year high school reunion, which was the first time in 8 years that all 4 of my best childhood friends and I were together. And unfortunately we haven't been together since then. About a week before Alex was born, we bought our Honda Odyssey. A 1997 model, it had about 35,000 miles on it. We're still driving it today (166,000 and counting). And then our second child was born. My hands, with the midwife's, lifted him up out of the water and put him on his mama's chest. Sofia had a brother. In the fall, my class made it into the semi-finals again, in what would turn out to be the final year that Universal held the competition.

I said I was going to keep this short, but so far I havent been too successful. But 2000 was a really big year. Some of the others will be shorter.

2001: Costa Rica without Cristina

After winning 1st place our first year in the competition, and 2nd place the second year, we came in 3rd place this year. A slight disappointment, but I was happy we placed. That summer, Alex was too young to go to Costa Rica (we had delayed his immunizations) so I went with Sofia. It was the first time I had gone without Cristina. We spent 2 weeks with Cristina's father, Ramon, and her sister, Elena. Other than bringing Sofia home with a case of head lice, it was a successful trip. In the fall, after some crazy people flew a couple of planes into some tall buildings, Universal Studios pulled the plug on the video competition. It knocked the wind out of my advanced kids, whose lives had revolved around the competition for the past 3 years. And, I must admit, it sparked my slow decline in enthusiasm for teaching TV Production.

2002: Germany...Alex's first trip to Costa Rica...New York City

Ramon and I went to the Orange Bowl to watch Florida beat Maryland. It turned out to be Spurrier's last game as coach of the Gators. He resigned a few days later. In March, Cristina went to Germany with toddler Alex, her mom, and sister. It was her first trip back since being an exchange student there in high school. With Alex's first round of immunizations, we were ready for a trip to Costa Rica...our first as a family of four. We spent about 6 weeks in Grecia with Ramon. It was our third World Cup summer in Costa Rica, though we came home before it was over. I flew to New York to sing in Carnegie Hall with a massive Baha'i choir, along with my parents and nephew. Steve came over from Scotland. Highlights for us both included staying in Brooklyn with my senior year prom date, sneaking into the Guggenheim during some kind of benefit event, and watching the World Cup final game in some seedy breakfast diner. And singing in Carnegie Hall was cool too.

2003: Scotland...San Francisco

We spent 3 weeks in Scotland, visiting Steve. Still one of my all-time favorite traveling memories. A few days after returning to the States, we flew to San Francisco for a La Leche League Conference. We stayed with my friend Dom. Dom and Steve could hardly have lived farther away from each other, yet we visited them both in one summer. That's pretty cool. In the fall, I coached the varsity golf team, which was kind of weird, since I don't play golf. Sofia and Alex quickly developed a love of riding in golf carts.

2004: Biggest year since 2000...maybe bigger

Soon after 2004 started, we learned that my parents needed to sell the house we lived in. Cristina was a few months pregnant. As we started packing up the house and preparing for a move to Arizona (where Cristina wanted to eventually attend naturopathic medical school) my Crohn's symptoms began. I lost a lot of weight. My days at GHS waned and I ended my TV Production career with one last highlight: organizing and producing a district-wide student film festival. We had 2 hours worth of suitable entries and sold out 2 shows at the Hippodrome cinema. Even the media covered it. It was a perfect way to go out. Weeks later, Bella was born. I was such a pro by this point (ha ha) that I caught her by myself (though the midwife was right beside me) and lay her on Cristina's chest. Ten days later, my Crohn's diagnosis. And two weeks after that I drove a moving truck across country to our new apartment in Phoenix. The rest of the family flew out after I had some semblance of a functioning apartment up and running. I didn't even have a job yet. A few days before the school year started, Phoenix Prep Academy hired me to teach 7th grade Language Arts. A 16 mile commute into the heart of Phoenix, but a job's a job.

2005: IKEA...first house...PUHSD

A new subdivision being built a mile from the kids' school seemed just right for us, and in the early part of the year we signed up, locking in the price on our first house ever. Throughout the year, we visited the constuction site and watched it go from a dirt lot to a finished house. In March, I got a second job at IKEA, in the sofa department. The pay was lousy, but it was right across the freeway from our apartment and it gave us a discount on the furniture we wanted to buy for our new house. We didn't go anywhere that summer (except for a short trip to visit Dom in LA) so we could save up enough for the closing costs. Phoenix Union High School District hired me to teach 9th grade English at Trevor Browne High School. Now a 25 mile commute from the apartment, but I carpooled with the dance teacher, and the pay was better. House closed escrow on September 27. Cristina's dad made his one and only trip to Phoenix and was there when we got our keys. I carried Cristina over the threshold, even though it was a little cheesy. The new house was closer to work and we settled into the joys of living in our very own brand new house. I resigned at IKEA right before Thanksgiving.

2006: Another World Cup...must be time to go to Costa Rica

After struggling with my Crohn's for the better part of 2 years, I finally found the right medication and went into complete remission. We spent a long summer in Costa Rica, this time in Pavas, where we met Ramon's new wife, Maritza (Bella's first trip to CR). In September, Steve came to visit us with his girlfriend Laura. That makes 4 times Steve and I got together in this decade. Not bad!

2007: One last school...the Snip...first cross-country drive without a moving truck

We spent our tax refund getting the van overhauled in preparation for a summer trip to the east coast. I got the Snip to permanently freeze our family size at 5. Taught summer school for the first time, and discovered that it's the best gig. We drove to Florida, up to North Carolina, then up to Chicago for a La Leche League conference, then back to Phoenix. Best road trip ever. I finally got a transfer to South Mountain High School, the school I'd aimed to be at since first researching teaching in Phoenix back in 2004. Just a mile from the house, we now had the overall proximity that we always sought. Sofia switched schools, starting 6th grade at Arizona School for the Arts. I took Alex to the Gator Homecoming football game.

2008: Another cross-country trip...music and Mac

Our plans to do a big west coast excursion got messed up by my summer school schedule, so we settled on doing the east coast again. No jaunt to Chicago this time, but we drove to Florida and North Carolina again. Great trip. This time we had a GPS, which was lovely. DMS hired Cristina as a kindergarten assistant and Bella started pre-school. Later in the year, I took Alex and Bella to the Gator Homecoming game. 16 years after selling my bass guitar and amp for wedding money, I bought a new bass guitar and a used amp. Steve and I started writing and recording songs together again, first time in about 13 years. My aging PC just wasn't hacking it for music production, so I bought a MacBook.

2009: Germany...Costa Rica...preparations to move again

Cristina visited Marion in Germany over Spring Break, her first major trip without kids. Though a year early for the World Cup, we spent the summer in Costa Rica. Third year in a row of teaching summer school. Still a great gig that finances our summer trips. In the fall, we began earnestly planning for a move out of Arizona: either to Costa Rica, North Carolina, or Florida.

Wow. After typing this all up, it really seems to have gone by fast. What a decade! Overall, I'd say it was a great one. 2 of my 3 children were born, we've had an extended adventure in another part of the country, bought our first house, and traveled to Israel, Germany, Scotland, and Costa Rica, as well as a sizable portion of the United States. I can only imagine what surprises and treasures my next decade in review will hold.

Winter Break in Review

Our two weeks of winter vacation are over.

So what did we do? Here are some highlights...

Van Repair

This is never fun, but it's easier to put a car in the shop when you're on break. Our trusty Honda Odyssey had been slightly leaking oil for over a year so we took it in. It could have done with $5600 worth of work, but we picked just the most critical repairs, which wound up costing $2500. Ouch. But at least we can trust our van to run for a while longer, and it sure is nice not to have a car payment.

Cristina's Quilt

Cristina has been working on a quilt for Danya, Sofia's piano teacher. Part of our payment for Sofia's lessons was a quilt, and it's taken Cristina a while to get it done. Like, years. But she's in the home stretch! She spent two long days of our winter break at the quilt shop, pin-basted the whole quilt and started the machine-quilting process. Whatever that means. I hoped for her to have it done by Christmas, but she didn't quite make it.

Night Owls

We stayed up late almost every night, and consequently slept late every morning. I thought I would get up earlier today to start adjusting, but no. I slept till 10. Oh well. I'll plunge back into the work schedule cold turkey. Probably best.

All this sleeping late means the two younger kids watched way more TV than we usually allow. But hey, it's vacation.

We also watched a lot of movies. I saw four movies at the theater (Avatar twice, Frog and the Princess with Bella, and Alvin and the Chipmunks 2/Fantastic Mr. Fox double-feature at the Scottsdale Drive-in). And we watched a bunch of Netflix. Didn't watch any bowl games other than the Gators, but we watched plenty of movies.



Sofia's Phone

Sofia got her first cell phone. It's a pre-paid. We split the cost with her. She's been very responsible with it so far, as we expected. I would never post her number on my blog, because she'd probably get inundated with spam texts, so if you want her number, you'll have to get it from her some other way!

Snow Play in Flagstaff

Already blogged about this, but here's a few more pics:

Check out that icicle!

Videos with Kids

Blogged about this too. But here's another video of some outtakes from our Laundry Fairy video. Probably TMI for most, but family and close friends will enjoy (hi Mom!).




New Year's Eve Party at Amy and David's

We're generally homebodies, but when Amy and David invited us to a small New Year's party at their place, we got out and did the social thing. It was fun. The kids had a blast, and we even took Vivien along. She peed under their Christmas tree. Sorry Amy!

Skating

We rang in the New Year roller skating with Claire's family (the ones we went to Flagstaff with). It wasn't too crowded, which made for a very pleasant afternoon.

Sofia took this picture

Homemade Pizzas

After skating, we made pizzas at home. I made different shapes for each person. Bella and Cristina got butterflies. Sofia got a turtle (which got a little mangled during transfer to oven). Alex's pizza was a Gator head, and mine was in the shape of Florida (we were watching the Gators play in the Sugar Bowl at the time.) Special note: the spinach on the pizza was from our own garden! Awesome!

Alex's Gator pizza

And the Gators won big, with Tebow breaking all kinds of records in his last game as a Gator. A perfect swan song.

The Laundry Fairy

We started our holiday break making a movie (Things to Do When You're Bored) and now we're ending our break with a movie. We present to you, our first film of the year 2010...

The Laundry Fairy!

Enjoy... This video was two years in the making...we shot the footage on December 31 and edited it on January 2.

https://youtu.be/TvNGr4X1zs4

Snow Play in Flagstaff

We went to Flagstaff last Tuesday for some snow play. Claire Penneau, the music teacher at DMS, came along with her family. They moved to Phoenix from southern California last August, and they'd never played in this much snow before. It was a blast sharing the experience with such snow newbies!

https://youtu.be/wSD6y-sF7OY

A New Year, Namaste, and "Yes Virginia, God does control the traffic"

Some say I'm a patient man.

I'm not sure patience comes naturally, but it can be cultivated. One of my core spiritual beliefs is that things happen for a reason, that the universe is far too complex for us to fully grasp why things happen. And that sometimes bad things happen for good reasons that we don't always understand. I'm okay with that. The concept has helped me not dwell on the negative. And it's helped me be more patient.

There's a story I heard a long time ago, where a man gets a knock at his door. A police officer standing in the rain tells him that he should evacuate his home because torrential downpours could cause flash flooding. He calmly tells the officer that he's a religious man, and he's confident that God will protect him. Soon, the rising flood waters force the man to the upstairs level of his house. A Coast Guard boat cruises by his window, sees the man, and calls to him to come aboard. The man calls back that God will protect him. Finally, he's forced on to his roof as the waters swell. An Army helicopter flies by and drops a rope. He waves the helicopter away, saying God will protect him. The waters rise and he drowns. In heaven, he goes to God and asks why, when he was such a steadfast and devout follower, did God let him die. And God said "Let you die? I sent a cop, a boat, and a helicopter!"

When we drove home from Flagstaff Wednesday evening, snow covered Highway 17 and traffic averaged about 20 miles an hour. The kids complained incessantly, despite our attempts to placate them with repetitions of how we can't do anything about it, how we have to be patient, etc. The whole time we puttered along at that snail's crawl, I kept thinking of the fact that three of our four tires were worn-out and in need of replacing. Not the kind of tires I want to be driving on ice with. And perhaps the slow traffic was a blessing in disguise. Maybe the universe (God, Jesus, the Force, insert your own spiritual interpretation here) gave us that traffic to slow me down so I wouldn't skid on the ice. Who knows? I do know that I was anxious to get home, and if there had been no traffic, I likely would have been dangerously cruising 5 mph over the speed limit, despite my awareness of the condition of my tires and possibility of icy on the road.

I took the plunge and explained this idea to Bella, who was especially disgruntled about the slow traffic. My explanation ran a little too long, and it didn't have a tidy resolution, getting prematurely drowned out by renewed complaints, the radio, etc. But later on, Bella thoughtfully asked me "Why does God want us to be in traffic?"

In other news, the new year began here in Arizona about two hours ago. We spent the evening at a friend's house with several other families, eating tamales and red velvet cake, playing games, and letting all the kids hang out together. We came home around 11. After watching the ball drop with Sofia, Cristina and I christened the new year with a little internet-guided new-age meditation, complete with chanting the mantra "Om" and everything. Hey, if it's good enough for Paul McCartney, I'll give it a shot. I'm sorry to say, though, that I fell asleep. By the time we brushed teeth and got in bed, I was wide awake, thinking of ideas to write in my blog. I knew if I didn't get up and write, most of the ideas would leave me during the night. So here I am.

I thought about New Year's resolutions. I guess many blogs will be filled with them today. One that came to mind for me was to abolish creative envy. That is, the feeling of envy you get when you read great writing and feel "Why can't I write that well?" or hear an amazing piece of music and think "I wish I had composed that." I suffer from this creative envy now and then, but I don't want to anymore. I will make a conscious effort to revel in the creative beauty that I'm lucky enough to encounter. I will use it to remind myself that I too am creative and the great thing about creativity is that it's a well everyone can dip their bucket into, and everything you pull up out of it is good and none of it is bad. Just different.

That thought reminded me of one of my favorite expressions: namaste. The light that's in you is in me too. I see your excellent word choice in that sentence, Cormac McCarthy. All that is best and highest in me salutes all that is best and highest in you. I honor the place from which you pull your written images, the place where you get your ideas and dialogue, the place from which you summon words that I've never head before but sound so good. When you are in that place in you, and I am in that place in me, we are One.

Man, that's an uplifting thought! Think about your favorite songwriter. If you too create music, you are, in a way, connected to that songwriter. You both share something special. It's similar to parenting. When you have parented a child, you have created something amazing that someone who has no children cannot fully comprehend. And no matter how differently you may choose to raise your child, you share something with all other parents. I want to honor that connection more, in my heart and in my head. Namaste.

I'll leave you with a more concrete resolution. I'm going to finish my book this year. And as I complete the first draft and then the rewrites, I won't be comparing the quality of my writing to authors I respect and revere, which is always a confidence-killer. I'll be submitting my contribution to the process, my bucket from the well. And I encourage you all to do the same.

You don't have to write, but do something. Creativity is not like blue eyes. It's not something some people are born with and some aren't. Paint, sing, color with crayons, dance in your kitchen, make a video, take a photo, bang out a beat on your pots and pans, write a one-line poem and stick it on the fridge, or better yet, in your child's lunchbox, write the Great American Novel, drop the bucket down with a splash and pull it up. What's in it?