Cranberry Almond Chicken

Okay, I have been raving about my mom's dinner that she prepared for Charlie on his birthday. Due to all of my raving, people have asked for the recipe. Well, I have finally received a copy of it and am passing it on to any interested chefs. Enjoy!

Cranberry Almond Chicken

· 4 Chicken breasts

· Tbsp. olive oil

· ¼ cup slivered almonds

· ¼ cup whole berry cranberry sauce

· 1 16 oz. jar Alfredo sauce

· salt and pepper

Warm a wide sauté pan over high heat. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Add the oil to the pan, swirl to coat the bottom of the pan. Lower the heat to medium. Add the chicken breasts and brown for 3-4 minutes, turn over and continue to cook for 3-4 minutes or until the chicken registers 170˚ on a thermometer. Remove the chicken to a clean plate. Add the almonds to the pan and toss for 1-2 minutes or until light brown. Add the cranberry sauce and the Alfredo sauce bring to a simmer, return the chicken to the pan and serve over rice.

CP's Birthday in N-Town

I apologize for the late blog posting but it is difficult to get over my naturally slow state of being.

On Monday, January 28, I met Charlie at my parents' house for a birthday dinner treat. Mom made this amazing chicken dish! It had cranberries, almonds, and this awesome Alfredo sauce. It was fabulous and I would love to try the chicken recipe sometime. It won't ever be as delicious as mom's but I would like to give it a whirl. To top it all off, mom made cheese cake for dessert. Oh so yummy!

After dinner Charlie got to open his birthday gifts. He was surprised to get a handful of books. He skillfully had marked a Barnes and Noble magazine my parents had over Christmas and "accidentally" left it at their house. My mom stumbled upon the marked-up pages and ordered Charlie's pre-selected novels. It was a fun surprise!

We were fortunate to enjoy the evening with Sausage (Josh), Brandon, Trisha, Hunter, and Maddison. Maddison has changed a bit and looks very healthy. She is a more chunky baby now. She enjoyed eyeing Charlie and figuring out what he was all about.

Thanks for the wonderful meal Mom and Dean!

Ebonomics - Masters Smasters

After a nice winter break from my master program classes, I am back at it again. My new class began on January 17. I am currently taking a special education class, Students with Linguistic Disabilities. For a masters program in differentiated instruction, I am learning more about special education rather than the entire spectrum of gifted and talented children and"regular" children. I thought the whole goal of differentiated instruction was to be able to teach all children of all levels. Not the case at CSP or I have been seriously misinformed! Apparently Carol Ann Tomlinson is wrong!

Back to my point, I am currently enrolled in a linguistic class. It is taught by an African American female professor. The students in my cohort are all white, suburban teachers. I am building background knowledge, for you, the reader. So our assignment last class was to read an article entitled, "Ebonics, a dialect of American English." Our professor quickly hands out the article at the end of class and asks us to read it and be prepared to discuss it.

Being the studious person I am, I read the article, and even highlighted and marked text. We get to class and begin discussing the article. My professor (let me remind you of the above background information), asks us what we think about the "Ebonomics" article. We were all dumbfounded. Perhaps she gave us the wrong article because we read about ebonics not ebonomics. It turns out, in a linguistic class taught by an African American professor, that ebonics is pronounced EBONOMICS! I used my decoding skills I learned in this class and I still can't figure out how you get ebonomics. It must be due to the fact that I am white and racists (thanks Carolyn O'Grady!).

Oh, I hope this masters degree proves that I learned something!

Gustie Alumni Game

On Saturday I was able to try to play in the annual Gustie alumni vs JV basketball game. I was unable to play last year due to coaching 9th grade. I was excited to play this year but a little nervous about who would show up for the big game. We had seven total players and four of the seven actually played on varsity for much of their college careers. One player still goes to school at Gustavus and another player was the student assistant coach her last two years of college.

So needless to say, we lost terribly. Until Saturday, we have never lost since I graduated from Gustavus. Not only did we lose but we got annihilated by more than 20 points. I think I shot about 6% from the field but it didn't keep me from shooting a lot!

Mickey thanked me after the game and said it was nice to have the JV finally put a game together. They haven't played that well all year and haven't shot that well either. I am glad we could help the JV gain some confidence!

Well the only thing I really have to show for the game is a nicely jammed ring finger. Charlie can vouch for the aches and pains I felt on Sunday. It was difficult to move, bend over, or laugh due to the sore muscles. Apparently basketball uses different muscles than I am used to using in my post-college years. Here is a picture to prove the accident:


Thank you to Jill, Larry, Annie, Miles, and Charlie for watching an ugly game. I appreciated the fans! Miles was smart and slept through most of the game. He knew it wasn't much to watch. :)

Owatonna Basketball

On Thursday, Josh and the Northfield basketball team traveled to Owatonna to take on the Huskies. Fortunately for both teams they hired the best Owatonna official to keep the game fair, Tanner Grimmius. We got to watch Josh play basketball and Tanner officiate - at the same time!


Well, both did an excellent job. Josh played pretty well. He had a couple of turnovers and some scary passes. But he also managed to grab some boards and score a few points. Tanner did an excellent job of calling fouls, travels and timeouts.

Before the game we enjoyed a delicious feast at the famous, two-story Pizza Ranch in Owatonna. It was amazing and I was ready for a nap after stuffing myself with pizza. Annie and Miles met us at the Pizza Ranch and went to Josh's game as well. Miles got to see his daddy officiate for the first time. I think Miles was very impressed. All of the action seemed to make him tired so he took a rest during much of the evening.

Josh and the rest of the 9th grade team lost to Owatonna but the Northfield varsity team pulled off a buzzer-beater win. Charlie and I went to watch the varsity after Josh's game. Dean is an assistant coach with the varsity. Northfield was down by 3 points with 11.7 seconds left in the game. Northfield had no time outs left but Owatonna called one to set up their defense - STUPID! Northfield brought the ball down and hit a contested 3 pointer with 2.4 seconds left. Owatonna calls another timeout. When they inbound the ball, the guy catches the ball while he is going out of bounds - turnover. Northfield gets the ball back at half court - shoots a half court shot that goes in and WINS! It was sweet!