You Know You Are Italian When.....

I tried to make Spring rolls last night and that wrap you use for them...weird and gummy and gross. I had bought cabbage, carrots, bean sprouts, green onion, etc. All these healthy things. Any way, I tried them raw, deep fried even baked. They were not a hit last night and I was so looking forward to making them.

So much for my attempts at creating a "food network type" recipe. Now I have all those ingredients, so I decided to make a PASTA SALAD.

All good recipes start with pasta...can't help it and you know it's true!!

The kids love this and will just go to the refrigerator and help themselves...


You know you are Italian when...... you AND your young teenagers snack on fresh mozzarella cheese and tomatoes drizzled (ok, drenched) with balsamic vinaigrette .

Camp Cadet

Jack was asked to go to Camp Cadet this year and after much pleading, coercing, cajoling, convincing and even bribing (yes bribing) he decided to go. Much thanks to my Berlin family consisting of Keith, Mark & Roni Sue with my college buddy Cooch, chiming in....HE'S GOING!!!

I am so thrilled. It is such a wonderful opportunity for him and he will learn and grow so much. The coolest thing.. the age range is 13-15 so guess what other child with the last name Murphy is going? 

KATE!!!

I am so thrilled for her. She asked about it last night and she even cried a little (they give drills and yell a lot at you) because she was afraid of that. Both kids will be getting up at 6am, running 2 miles, doing push-ups, etc. They will also get to see ground zero of Flight 93, a SWAT team, helicopters, a drug dog sniffing, conduct a forensic investigation, gain CPR certification,  and do the repel wall, zip line and ropes courses at Outdoor Odyssey.

So, if you are free the week of July 25th - 31st...so am I. I don't know what I will do!? I know I have to clean, maybe clean out that extra room and create that library I always wanted. Exercise. Clean my office at work. exercise, clean out clothes that don't fit, exercise, afternoon matinees, exercise.

Make a great dinner for when they come home, exercise.

Watch a lot of 24 reruns too!! exercise

Dinner with friends?!? So many things to do. exercise

I will miss them horribly, terribly, miserably...but I am so proud of what they will be doing.

call me!

Some Easter Pictures

The kids and me with my Dad. he is actually taller, just being silly!

Kate, my Dad, my brother Matt and Jack

 Matt and his fiance, Jill. They are stunning and wonderful and so great with my kids.

Aunt Margaret, My mom, Me, Jill, Jill's mom Barbara, Jill's sister-Heather and my Kate!

Forsythia in the backyard in Riverhead, NY.

Great Friends

What is it about your friends from college that makes them so special? One of my dear friends was passing through on her way from visiting Catholic University with her daughter, and we met up with her at McDonald's in Somerset.

WHAT A GREAT 2 HOURS! Just talk and laugh and encouragement and getting connected again. So much fun and the best part..

I have been trying to get Jack to go to Camp Cadet and I get "the look". When we were talking last night, all Cooch ( official name: Laura Cuchinello-she like a calmer version of Jerseyshore) had to say was "what a great opportunity, you should go!" On the way home, Jack said,"you know, maybe I will go to Camp Cadet, Stew, David and Steven are going, it should be OK"

YES! The power of a Great Friend!!!

Holy Week

My little second graders made their first confession yesterday, after I went. yuck. It's bad enough knowing your sins, then confessing them to the priest. It is supposed to make you feel better but I just feel worse afterwards.

When I was growing up, we were not allowed to watch TV during Holy Week unless it was a religious movie. Did you ever see the movie, "The Robe"? Well my siblings and I did. We were so desperate to watch TV, we found that in the TV Guide, got my mother's approval and sat through a terrible movie. Even as pre-teens, we knew it was a bad movie. But hey, it was TV, so we watched it.

We tried that one year. The kids and I watched the Greatest Story Ever Told and Jesus of Nazareth. The latter is wonderful. The scene where Peter realizes he has to leave his family to follow Jesus, very powerful. Kate cried. When he denies knowing Jesus, we all cried.

Another year, we tried saying the rosary every night curing Lent. That lasted about 2 weeks and by Holy Week we just said it 2x a week. Our intentions were good. I've been trying not to curse this week and I have already blown that. I'll keep trying.

What I am really looking forward to is the secular things we have planned this week. We are leaving around 2pm on Wednesday and going to my brother Matt's apartment in Queens. I want to go to "The Top of the Rock", "ESPN Zone" , "Mid-Town Comics" and a Borders or BN store. We have 2 days before we go out to the Island to see my parents, so there is lots of time to do fun stuff. Kate gets measured for her bride's maid gown on Saturday. Hey, maybe we will go to St. Patrick's Cathedral to say a prayer on Good Friday.


I will keep you posted on where we go and what we see. I'll say a decade of the rosary for you, will you say a prayer for me? I feel like I need them badly today.

Good People

I have been fortunate to work with some wonderful people over my years at Berlin Brothersvalley. I need to relate a story about a young man I work with and the people who have helped bring him into his own over the years.

This little guy was removed from a home where his diabetic mother (now deceased) in a wheelchair was slapped around by the dad and he and his brother were abused and neglected. CYS did the right thing and the children were removed from the home. I worked in the HS at the time but people in town said rats scurried from the trailer when it was hauled away.

I met this little guy "Jay" in the middle of grade 3. He returned to our district in foster care. He was hyper and stood by his desk to write and his foster family was overwhelmed with his level of need. He was tested for an IEP and knowing the trauma he had experienced, was identified Emotional Support. He became quieter, attentive and eager to please in grade 4. He stayed in regular education and marveled everyone with his math abilities.

I watched this little guy move into his aunt and uncle's home, who I forget are such. They look like they could be his grandparents. They adopted him and love him and want the best for him. They get mad at him when he gets C's! I watched and encouraged him and tried to get him out of his shell. Teachers have encouraged him and believed in him and his grades were decent throughout the middle school years and (only a PA teacher can appreciate this) he left 8th grade proficient in reading and advanced in Math.

The team saw his natural talent in computers and math grow in HS. This kid has taken many hard classes our school offers. Chem II, Algebra III/Trig, Web Design, 3D Modeling & Animation, CAD classes, etc. I am happy to say he rose to the challenge for each class. Math, computer and design classes - A's, Science's B's & C's. He is a great kid. Still tiny, still quiet and never quite fitting in but a smile that will brighten anyone's day.

Now in grade 12, he earned an A on his senior project, designing speaker boxes for his car, using the CAD program. He is taking Bio II and wasn't planning on going on his Bio II trip to Wallop's Island in the Spring. Well "his school mother" was not going to see that happen and when I was talking to some collegues in Elem and Middle school, everyone offered to help pay for his trip. I sold more candy for him than I have ever sold in a fundraiser for my own kids and many teachers in the district donated. Some who I never thought would. Good, kind people who are happy to see a child succeed. A little guy who could have been a tragic story of the neglect and abuse many of us in the service field see every day. Well he is NOT one of the casualities. He is a success.

In the fall he is going to Penn Highlands to study computer aided drafting. Berlin community, his family and school family have much to be proud of.

Snow Day Cooking -Torta

 

 

This is the Torta that my grandmother taught me to make! It is good hot out of the oven or the next day right out of the fridge.When I was pregnant with Jack, I craved this. I remember calling her for the recipe and she laughed as she did not really have a recipe. "Well you add some spinach to cooked rice and add a little bit o' onion, some milk and cheese" This is what I came up with and my kids love it. She made it with all freshly grated parmesan cheese but I use different kinds. When the kids were little they liked just eating the rice mixed with spinach and cheese and they never ate the crust. As they got older, they began to enjoy the crust so I added it to the recipe.

Here it is!!!

2 cups uncooked rice (cooked according to package directions) (sometimes I cook it with chicken broth and some garlic)
10 oz box of frozen spinach, cooked, squeeze out all the extra water and chop even finer (use a food processor if you have one.
1 small onion, chopped fine and cooked until softened with 1 tablespoon butter or olive oil.
Mix all these ingredients together

Add about 1/2 cup milk
1-2 eggs ( see how dry it looks and add the second egg if you think it needs it)
4 cups shredded cheese - it can be a mixture of mozzerella, provolone, cheddar and/or parmesan

add these to the rice mixture, add more milk if it looks dry

Crust:
2/3 cup flour,
1 egg
1 tablespoon water
1 teaspoon olive oil

Mix these ingredients together until blended
cover with bowl and let rest- you can actually make this first and let it rest while you are cooking the other ingredients

Knead the dough after it has rested about 15 minutes, after you knead it, roll it out with a rolling pin so it will cover the bottom and up the sides of your 13 by 9 baking dish.

butter or oil a 13 by 9 inch baking dish (I like using olive oil)

Lay the thin crust into the baking dish
Add the rice and cheese mixture, spreading it out evenly. Fold over any extra crust.(you can oil the top of the crust that you folded over to help it brown nicely.

You can sprinkle fresh grated parmesan over the top, layer some tomato slices over it even mushrooms if you would like (This was not part of the "original" recipe but Kate likes the tomato on it and so do I, Jack doesn't like it.

Bake in 400 degree oven for 30 minutes until the top gets browned.

Let rest about 10 minutes, cut, eat and ENJOY an authentic Northern Italian meal.