Moving has been a challenge. First, Comcast disconnected us on the date we'd agreed to. That was after the first rep did NOTHING that we'd agreed to. Then, they sent a technician who obviously wanted to go home. He told us we had no service and it'd be 30-60 days before they could come dig a new line under the driveway. Ummm, what was it about the previous owners having had Comcast FOUR days earlier???? A week later they sent another guy. Orlando. He was a gem. Even if he was 2.5 hours late. He got us set up. Then, we had no computer cables. Turns out Connie had put everything we needed in a box. A box that the movers picked up and moved with the other 400 boxes. One that ended up at the bottom of a mountain of boxes. So, even though we finally had internet, we had no computers. Finally a few days ago, Mark our computer guy, cobbled together enough stuff from leftovers at the office that we had the ability to log on to the internet. But, our main computer was and still is not up and running.
I spent the first week at the new house trying to direct traffic while the pantry was rebuilt, the fence was installed, the heating and cooling was replaced... One day I counted eight different service folks in and out of the house. I was trying to unpack the kitchen so we could at least quit eating carryout. That was marginally successful. Connie spent that week at the old house trying to get it ready to list. He succeeded wonderfully. It looks awesome. Now, if it would only sell.
The second week we came back to the office. To a week full of meetings for me. Wednesday afternoon I couldn't load my imaging retriever. Russell on the help desk did all he could. Thursday morning Mark was due at the house to do the cobbling together. I called him and said please come by the office first and resolve this issue. Two hours later and he said it looked like Windows had crashed and needed to be reinstalled. Oh, joy. That meant the rest of Thursday and Friday were gone. All of my appointments those days were to be via GoToMeeting and I didn't have a computer to use. He got everything restored by Saturday. Well, except email. I originally had 85 emails in my inbox. Once the system restored I had about 15,000. Yes, you read that correctly. I was not amused. These were all emails that'd been carefully stored in the right folders over the years. Now, they'd come back to the inbox. The same thing happened with my outbox. And, none of my business email addresses were coming through. The one I use the most just made some changes to their CRM so we are dealing with wait times in the 20-25 minute range. So, what to do while holding??? Write a blog! That is write a blog after I spent 15 minutes trying to get logged in to Blogger... Seems that since I always log in from home this computer doesn't want to cooperate!
Before we moved, I had all of my pastas and grains happily stored in plastic containers. They were wonderfully convenient. Now, they're in a box somewhere. I'm missing the dessert plates and coffee mugs with the flowers too. There's a big space in the attorney's bookcase where those go. Means there are two boxes of that missing. Connie found one of them last night. YAY! It's the small things that really make me happy right now. So, the only pasta I had was lasagna. Once I'd moved everything from one freezer to the next, I decided I HAD to work on using up some of the stuff I'd frozen eons ago. Mushroom pesto was at the top of the list. Now, you could very easily substitute some very finely chopped mushrooms sautéed with some garlic, olive oil and truffle oil. But, I had this: mushroom pesto. And, I had cottage cheese and gruyere cheese. And, I'd finally found a cheese grater. Not our everyday one, but one that would work. And, I had a jar of pasta sauce and some cream. We were in business! For a clean out the kitchen meal this was amazingly good! It's one that is so easy for a weeknight yet tastes elegant enough for company.
Mushroom Lasagna Rollups
Ingredients
6 lasagna noodles
1/4 c mushroom pesto (or an equal amount of very finely chopped mushrooms sautéed with garlic, olive oil and truffle oil)
1 c small curd (NOT lowfat) cottage cheese
1 c coarsely grated gruyere cheese
16 oz jar Arrabiata pasta sauce (we use Trader Joes)
1/2 c cream
1 c coarsely grated gruyere cheese
Directions:
Cook the lasagna noodles for about a minute less than the instructions call for. Mix the cottage cheese, mushrooms and one cup of the grated gruyere. Schmear that on the lasagna noodles and roll them up. Put them in a baking dish seam side down. Mix the pasta sauce and the cream and pour it over the lasagna rolls. Top with the other cup of the grated gruyere. Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes.
