Added to the collection of leftovers in the fridge...

Oh, quiche of every sort... How I love you...


She-She's Quiche ;)

5 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup shredded cheddar
1/4 cup crumbled feta
1/3 package of frozen spinach, thawed and drained
salt
pepper
a pinch of nutmeg
frozen pie crust


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll out pie crust onto tart pan, making sure to roll the crust up to the edges of the pan. Combine first 8 ingredients and whisk until blended. Pour into prepared crust and bake 35 minutes until crust is browned and egg mixture is set. Let cool and enjoy!

Ethnic Dishes & 101 Things

Look what Joe and I found on facebook via my cousin- the first blog of Persian Recipes! I really need to get back into doing some hearty Persian cooking. With both Persian New Year (Nowruz- 3/21) and St. Patrick's Day (3/17) coming up, I'm looking forward to blogging about some yummy meals from my heritage, and hopefully I can share some food with some of you! :)

Plus, I'll get to cross those two items (cooking a Persian and an Irish meal) off my list of 101 things to do in 1001 days! I think I'll try and add a page to this blog so I can keep myself accountable to do my 101 things.

Sheila

On Women, Careers, and Children

I’m thinking a lot about the “choice” of motherhood and career, and whether one has to make a choice, or whether we can have it all. It’s been a very draining experience to think through all this. Some thoughts…. (many raised in Gender and Law by Bartlett & Rhode):

• A study of women who received MBAs from the University of Chicago School of Business in the last 10 years found that only half of those with children were in the workforce… a study of female graduates of Yale currently in their mid 30s to late 40s found that 90% of men and 56% of women were in the workforce. (from a class handout)

• Poor Women/Rich Women and Child Care - One theory is that society in general, and in particular wealthy women, divide “spiritual” and “labor-related” aspects of child care. They might work outside the home or go to tennis lessons (as we saw from Trey’s mother on Sex and the City!), but while they read to their children before bed, they don’t partake in the “menial” tasks such as cleaning and laundry, and instead hire someone, usually of lower class and often of a minority race, to take over those tasks. Women make up 90%, and women of color make up 30%, of this work force – with the tendency of low wages, high turnover, and sometimes unsafe/exploitative working conditions. At the same time, mothers who can’t afford not to work must drop off their children for child care (unless her paycheck would be basically the same amount as the child care cost, in which case, it might not be worth it, and we would have to talk about welfare). Although there’s the issue of choice here, there’s still the question of whether these women are selling their children short, or whether we should even be asking that, considering that (most) babies have fathers as well… isn’t it their responsibility too?
  

• Nannies, or as they once were, “Mammies”, may sacrifice time with their own children for the sake of their jobs caring for the children of their boss or “mistress”. This can cause pain and bitterness for the nanny’s children… for a poignant picture of this, read Thrity Umrigar’s book, The Space Between Us. (She’s an English professor at Case!)

• Despite the fact that the U.S. touts its family values, many other countries make it far easier for women to become parents by providing child care, more maternity and paternity leave, and flexibility for working from home. Some of these things make it possible for women to be better employees, and some make it possible for women to be better mothers. So is this pro-family values, or anti-family values? Either way, they are options that allow women to make choices. The truth is that other nations often take these steps to incentivize population growth… the U.S. doesn’t really have that problem.

• Some people suggest that women’s tendency to work in caretaking roles should be valued to a much greater extent – without women to care for and nurture children, where would our society be? They suggest a subsidy for this type of work to reflect its valuation as true “work”. At the same time, I don't really see how the market can work that out.
  

• With all this coming up, I came across two articles - one about the emergence of Househusbands and another about the positive aspects of Young Motherhood, both with unique and interesting perspectives on the matter!

• I can't say that I have any official positions on these matters - only that I see and understand a variety of angles and that everything pains me. I hate the feeling that one day I will probably have to make choices between being a great employee and a great mother. It makes me just want to do one well, for fear of being stigmatized as a “lazy worker” or making choices that limit my child’s opportunities. And then, that’s just if I want to be an average 40 hr/week worker. Can I ever be a true leader? Start my own nonprofit? Run a business? Run for public office? Are these realistic choices or do they foreclose the possibility of being the kind of mother I want to be? Why is having a family the norm – is it an acceptable choice to be married… without children? Will it limit my life experience… would it be in line with my faith? Do I want to work for fear of the possibility of not living up to my career potential, or do I want to have children because I fear failure in the workplace? I am feeling all these things. Okay. Time to pick up the pieces of my scattered brain.

My Crasy Daisys :)

Check out my Valentine's Day gift to myself ;-) - also check out Marnia's Daisy Store on Etsy! I know not all of you have met Marnia (Maya's big sister!), but those of you who have know that she is a real joy to everyone she's around! She custom-made these adorable flowers for me in yellow, red, and purple to match in our multi-colored living room. This style fits our place really well, but if you check out her other designs and colors, they'd be cute anywhere and would also make great brooches for coats!

~ Sheila

Vacays

Some people seem to be wondering what the big deal is about cruising. If you're curious, here's a great article about the cost-effective benefits of cruising!

In the meantime, I've been thinking about how great it would be to go on a group trip with some friends. I haven't done so since high school! Well, scratch that - if it counts, we went on a group trip for W&B's wedding in Atlanta - I've never had 11 hours on the road fly by so quick with such great company! So, whatdya say, let's go on a trip together! Besides, we all need to give Mike a good time.. he's been working like 70+ hour weeks and totally deserves to enjoy some days off! Who's up for it? Somewhere in the toasty south? Or maybe Disney World?! Anywhere fun, temperate, and affordable :)

Wine, Chocolat, & Cheese Party!

Joe and I have been talking about throwing a wine, chocolate, and cheese party for about a year now - ever since we started enjoying varieties of all three! So, when Holly proposed Chocolat (Only 62% fresh? Seriously, rotten tomatoes...) for her movie night movie, we got really excited about the possibility of pairing the movie night with a tasting!

So, to prepare, first thing's first... a little kitchen update. We had to say goodbye to Santa's Bag. What's Santa's Bag?
Well, when Joe and I first moved into our place, we were a little limited on the furniture and thriving on the gifts. We had a brand new microwave, and nowhere to put it! So we took its box and styro packaging, sealed it up, and put a giant cloth target gift bag over it. We flipped it over, and wa-la, a microwave stand! (I call it the Santa bag since it is large and red enough to hold Santa's gifts!) Anyway, my mother was kind enough to recognize that this was probably not a good idea, and 2.5 years later, we gave our nuker its very own stand.
Okay, next duty - take a nice trip to Trader Joe's! If you're as big of a TJ's fan as we are, you must see this video. So cute. Everyone buys unnecessary items in cool packaging at TJ's. Having the privilege of picking out cheese and wine at TJ's... well, let's just say it was a little overwhelming. We ended up with a few reds (a cabernet and a merlot for sangria), a Riesling, a Champagne, and a few cheese (stinky, soft, and some weird cheddar from Ireland with porter in it!) Our friends were gracious and brought more wine, cheese, and chocolate! But before that, I had to make the truffles. I figured... with only a few ingredients, how hard could they be? Boy, was I wrong!

Ingredients for the inside of the truffles... easy enough, no? Chop the chocolate, melt some in a pot over the stove, mix in a little heavy cream to temper, and then pour it back over the remaining chocolate in the bowl and stir. Not so bad....
Next, I had to spread the stuff out and let it cool at room temperature for 4+ hours. Not so easy when your kitchen is a sauna! Then I had to scoop teaspoon-sized bits and let them sit for awhile in the fridge so I could roll them.



Finally, after rolling all 77(!) of those suckers, I had to coat them in a chocolate glaze (chocolate chips melted over boiling water and quickly cooled to whatever particular degree I couldn't measure because I don't own a candy thermometer... really, who does?) , then dip them in
toppings, and let it all sit some more!

Toppings: Pistacious, Coconut & Cocoa Powder

Ta-Daaa!

(Phew! Never doin that again!)

Okay, back to the party. We pulled out the ole' (well, new) wine glasses, delicately placed our chocolates on platters, made labels for each wine and cheese selection, popped the corks, and CUT THE CHEESE! Hah. Really. Here was our bountiful spread... Wine was drunk, Cheese was funk(y), and Chocolat(e) was... well... irresistible!