In West Philadelphia Born & Raised!

Yep. I'm rapping out to that while cooking today. I'm soo cool eh? Today I'm making Macaroni and Cheese (yumm!) With Roasted Butternut Squash (mac n cheese n squash? Whaat?) 

Here's the recipe before I go any further and forget to give it to you :) 

Ingredients

• 400 g peeled butternut squash, finely diced, about 3 cups
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 2 cups dry elbow macaroni
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 cups 2% milk
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp cayenne (optional)
• 1 cup grated white cheddar, preferably aged
• 1 cup grated light mozzarella
• 1/2 cup grated gruyère
• 1/3 cup panko bread crumbs

Instructions

• Position racks in centre and top third of oven. Preheat to 400F. Toss squash with oil on a baking sheet. Bake in centre of oven until tender, stirring halfway through, 16 to 18 min. Remove to a rack. Preheat broiler to 500F.
• Cook pasta in a large pot of boiling water, following package directions but omitting salt, until al dente, 7 to 8 min. Drain.
• Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium. Whisk in flour. Mixture will be dry and very lumpy. Gradually whisk in milk, Dijon, salt and cayenne. Stir until mixture comes to a boil, 5 to 7 min. Remove pan from heat and stir in pasta,cheese and squash until just coated. Do not melt cheese. Transfer to an 8-inch- square baking dish or 6 individual ovensafe dishes. Sprinkle panko over pasta.
• Broil until top is golden, 2 to 3 min. Serve immediately.

Now I'm making some adjustments to this because I don't have all the "proper" ingredients and I'm too poor to buy them haha

I'm just using plain mozza and cheddar since I don't have light mozza, white cheddar or gruyere. I bet it will turn out just fine with normal cheeses haha

here is the link to where the recipe can be found online even though I copied mine out of a book at work during Wednesdays midnight shift (gag) I'll let you all know how it turned out after I'm finished!

http://www.chatelaine.com/recipe/world-cuisine-2/macaroni-and-cheese-with-roasted-butternut-squash/

xo Lisa 

A First...and an apology (kinda)

Today I have to admit, I had a little meltdown. After I ate supper, I came downstairs to a song playing on the radio that makes me cry every single time I hear it. Usually just a sniffle and I'm good, but tonight I bawled.
Wondering what the "first" is yet? I cried about a boy. I, Lisa Keough, aged 22 have never ever cried over a boy. Until tonight. But, I didn't cry because he broke my heart, or didn't want to date me. I cried because my friend is hurting and I felt powerless.
The last boy I knew who hurt was sweet Jaydee. He tripped and scraped his arm. With Jaydee though , all it took was a cuddle and a kiss and he was all better. The boy I cried for today hurts inside and I don't think I can kiss and cuddle it better. And I'd just recently been kind of rude to this boy because he made me angry. I sent him an angry Facebook message (oh I know. 'oooh how scary!') and when I seen him the other night I ignored him, even though I could see that he stopped and waved at me. (Sorry :[ ) Now what I was angry at him for seems silly. It was foolish really. The reason now doesn't matter.. all that matters is I'm awful sorry. Sorry for being selfish and sorry for being just plain stupid. And sorry for your hurt. I wish I could make it  better for you. I love you.

thats all for tonight folks.
xo Lisa

I didn't say what Monday!

I am back (for the millionth time!) Why does it always seem that whenever I try to blog (or do anything) steady.. something always happens to disrupt it! Argh. We've been doing renovations to our house  and my poor computer got buried and I just found her yesterday evening. Getting the charging cord took me till today :P
On to exciting things..
I GOT A KITCHEN! It's all mine! :D Yay for Christmas cooking! Or any kind of cooking to be honest! ;) Be on the lookout for recipes. It's gonna be a rough little while for me and my family. My father has cancer and I'm scared. I really am. So I'm hoping to try to find an "out" to keep me busy when I get worried. Especially in the tough times. Since I know I like to cook and bake and experiment, I'm gonna try that :) I'm gonna get so fat... lol
Oh.. listen to this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBJ8iGHUOEg while you read. It'll make you happy. :)
One more month till Christmas (eve!) As much as I love Christmas.. I really just want this year to be over so we can jump into next years trials and hopefully triumphs.
Wait! I take what I said earlier back. Do NOT listen to the above video while you read.. WATCH it after :) It'll make you happier, I promise. :D How could Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra NOT make anybody happy? Seriously? They're beautiful. I'm not just talking about their voices either haha..
Lately I've been feeling rather.. frustrated.. with my job. I thoroughly enjoy what I do, most days anyways, and I think almost 4 years proves some sort of dedication... right? I've been working faithfully for Walmart for that long and I'm still part time and pretty low on the food chain so to speak. I don't mean to sound ungrateful, because I am oh so glad to have a job, but I'd really love to have full time at least. Just this week I found out that a young gentleman (he's still in school...) who has been there roughly a month is now my supervisor. Why? They wanted a male CSM because all the females have been getting pregnant lately. What? Stereo-typical much? Last time I checked you usually have to, erm, have sex.. to get pregnant. So I'm safe. In fact.. if I do become pregnant in the near future, somebody'd better call the Pope.. I'm not saying I want the supervisor position, because I really don't. I wouldn't turn it down if offered, but I wouldn't necessarily beg for it unless it was a full time position. I've even spoke to my boss, and explained my whole situation to him and said look, I need more hours. It's not any longer a "want" thing. Since we found out that dad has cancer, it has become a "need"..
Anyways... lol I'll post pictures of my kitchen as soon as it get's completed. :) My taps have got to go in yet, and my dish washer :) Then I get to decorate. Eeeeeeee! I'm stupid with excitement hehe
Speaking of work though.. I have to work in the morning! So it's off to bed I go. Well, as soon as I plug in my Frank Sinatra Christmas CD and put it on repeat repeat repeat :P
Night lovies
xox Lisa

80 Days of Blogging Challenge, Day 4!

4.What music album would be used for a movie about your life?

First off. Wow. I've blogged 4 days in a row. That's gotta be some kind of record for me haha.
Now to answer the question.
I don't think I could pick any specific album off the top of my head to be used as a soundtrack for said movie. So, I'm just gonna say that a combined bunch of songs from Stompin' Tom could be thrown together to become this album to use to go with my life story haha. I'm absolutely in love with Stompin' Tom's music and the right song of his always seems to find its way to me at the right moment. His songs always strike a chord in my heart and fit my life just perfectly when I find them, or rather, when they find me, because I believe that what you need at any given moment of your life (and not what *we* feel we need, but what *God* feels we need) will find its way to us at that moment. And maybe if we threw in a song or two from Johnny Cash and maybe Loretta Lynn too, the album would be perfectly complete. Hmm, maybe I should make such an album and post the song list on here to describe my life. Well, maybe not life, perhaps year.. I'll work on it and get back to you all on this matter.
Chow!
Post 4 in the 80 days of blogging challenge c/o Tom Slatin's 80 Journal Writing Prompts www.tomslatin.com/80-journal-writing-prompts/