The last chapter

I won't be posting to this blog anymore. It's served its purpose the last two years. I do plan to read and comment on other blogs as that's what I normally do on my lunch break. I will keep posting as Grewuprural though. If I decide to start another blog, I will let you know where I am located.

Eight Years & Five Months

It would have been eight years today. Do I regret my decision to end things? Absolutely not. Then why am I writing about it? Eight years is over a third of my life. That's a long time. I kind of wish I could get back some of those years, but it's done and over with. If there was a way to get those years back, I would have done more things for myself. I am using those years as learning lessons for myself.

The past five months have been some of the happiest for me. Looking at it today, I am so glad the relationship didn't make it to the eight-year mark. If it made it there, I wouldn't have met some really awesome people that have entered my life, especially a certain person that I live with.

It's been one of those months....busy with work. I have a four day weekend starting tomorrow. All I want to do is curl up on the couch with a blanket and watch a good movie.

Happy Thanksgiving!

New Part-time Job

Last night, I started my new part-time job. It was awesome. I will definitely enjoy this job. While I was working last night, the Red Sox were playing the Rockies in game one of the World Series. My roommate knew I was slightly disappointed that I would not be able to catch game one or two (I work tonight also).

When I left work last night, I checked my phone. While I was working, he texted me an update early in the night. I thought that was really sweet because he's not crazy about baseball. I texted back and then he says that he is recording it for me. How awesome is that?

The Usual

I haven't posted much about my personal life lately. Everything with the roommate and I are doing well. Life couldn't get any better than this right now.

Same Sauce Different Recipe

Last week, I made pork chops with an awesome sauce. Well, I took that same sauce and created a simple Chinese-like dish.

Chicken breasts
Rice
Chicken Stock
Pineapples
Frozen Broccoli or Mixed Vegetable
Sauce from other recipe

Cut chicken up into bite size pieces. Create the sauce. I put the chicken in the sauce while I prepare the rice and vegetables.

I cook my white rice in the microwave using chicken stock. Follow directions for rice. Once done, set aside. I use frozen vegetables by Birds Eye that steam in the bag. Follow directions for frozen vegetables.

While those are cooking in the microwave, I put a little olive oil in a skillet. Let it get hot. Put the chicken in the hot pan. Add the remaining sauce to the skillet at this time. Cook chicken thoroughly.

Once chicken is cooked, combine the chicken, rice, and vegetables together in a big bowl. Do not put the sauce in the mixture just yet.

The sauce is much better if it is thickened with corn starch diluted with cold water. Pour the corn starch mixture in the sauce in the skillet. Constantly stir to allow sauce to thicken. Once thicken, pour sauce over chicken/rice/vegetable mixture.

This is great as leftovers.

Need recipe title

It's been a while since I have posted. It's been a busy month with working 70+ hours per week. I have been reading blogs during my lunch break, but haven't had time to put together a decent post. So, tonight I bring you my most recent gluten-free, dairy-free creation: Pork Chops.

I just threw bunch of ingredients together. I didn't measure anything, just eye-balled everything.

Sauce:

Dark brown sugar
Gluten-free soy sauce
Honey mustard (used French's)
Honey
Sherry cooking wine

Mix everything together in a baking pan. I used my 13x9 corningware pan. It's what I had on hand.

Add pork chops. At the last minute, I sliced an apple. Arrange the apple in the sauce. To be creative, I gently sprinkled some nutmeg on top of everything.

I cooked them at 350 for 25 minutes, turning once at the half way point. Next time, I would only cook them for 20 minutes.

While cooking, it made the house smell really good. It got two thumbs up from my roommate.

Served it with butternut risotto* (used soy milk) and southwestern seasoned corn.
* On the risotto, I sprinkled some nutmeg.

The flavors were great. I need a title for this recipe. Any suggestions?

Fallen for him

It's been over 3 weeks now living with my roommate. He's a great roommate. Always there to lend a helping hand whether it's with moving something to preparing dinner to making me laugh when I have a good or bad day to watching movies that I have never seen even though he's seen them a million times. He's very patient and understanding in regards to my gluten and dairy free lifestyle.

I look forward to coming home every night. I want to leave work so I can hang out with him. There's something about him that I really like. This is so cliche, but he's a guys guy; big, strong, but yet has a soft side. He doesn't watch your traditional sports, which surprisingly, is fine by me. He keeps my attention, which can be very hard to do considering that I get bored very easily.

As you may have guessed, I have fallen for him. So far, I am enjoying the ride. I can only imagine where this ride will take me. I am so ready for the adventure.

New PT Job

That's right. I have a new part-time job. I'll be starting there in early October. I am extremely excited as I have never worked in this part of the job sector before. It's kind of like retail, but the store offers necessities. The discount is behind awesome considering the type of store. Let's just put it this way, the discount will come in great use in regards to the culinary lifestyle changes I have made in over the past year or so.

Happy Happy Happy

It's been a while since I last posted. It's been a really good month.

Towards mid August, I started thinking about finding a roommate to share my apartment. After some thinking, I realized that I wouldn't be able to find a roommate because of my apartment. Don't get me wrong, it's a decent apartment but not for the money I would be asking. So I decided to start looking to share a house/apartment with someone else. I went looking and found a few that were worth considering. After some comparing between the places, I decided on living with a single guy who happens to live near my full-time job. I know, I know...a single female living with a single male who she does not know. We are both taking chances here. Sometimes, you just have to go with your gut instinct and that is what I did. My instinct has not failed me yet.

My roommate and I get along very well. I am expanding his cooking skills and he is helping me extend the number of movies I have watched. Before I moved in, the number of movies I have actually seen, very low. In the almost three weeks I have lived with him, I have seen at least four, if not more. That's a lot of movies for me. To make it even better, he's great eye candy. You can look but don't have to touch.

For almost the past two months, I have made many choices that have changed my life. Thankfully, all the changes have been positive. I am glad that I am making these changes. I believe everyone needs some change in their lives once in a while.

Overall, I have been really happy since the beginning of August. So happy, that some of co-workers are telling me that they notice my new found happiness. I guess this is what happens when you rid of things that bring you down.

The next post will be about my hiring experience at my new part-time job.