Saturday, September 10, 2011

Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures

Many of you have followed my silly little blog over the past year.  I appreciate your kind comments and your patience.  Some of you have told me that I should take up writing since I’m all retired now and have nothing else to do.  J  Ha ha.  Today I’m writing.  Please bear with me, it may be a little long.  This is a different kind of story.  It’s from my heart and a plea for the prayerful support of all of you dear friends and family who love me.  I’m so blessed to have you! 

Every story has a beginning so I’ll start there.  After my first beautiful daughter “Little Molly” was born I learned that I had some malignant spots on my cervix which had been confirmed by a biopsy.  I made plans to have surgery to take care of this.  Very shortly before the surgery should have taken place I learned that I was pregnant.  The doc suggested that perhaps we should continue with the surgery… but that option would mean terminating the pregnancy.  The other option would be to continue with the pregnancy and monitor the cells through out.  Hopefully they would be slow growing and then we could do the surgery after the baby was born.  My first husband, Jim and I did not want to terminate the pregnancy so we chose the second option.  We are Christians and so we sought prayer from those at our church and other friends and family and trusted that God would take care of us.  And he did.  At the appointed time our son Daniel was born and as any other new mother and father, we were joyful and thankful for the little bundle of awesomeness.  J  The doctor told me to come back in about two months and we would go ahead and take a last look and then schedule the surgery.  So… when Daniel was two months old I went back to the doc.  He had scheduled another colposcopy to review the growth of the cells.  As he began the exam Daniel began to fuss and cry in his car seat.  I know… can you say babysitter?  J  But since I was a nursing mom and babies usually sleep most of the time I had brought him along.  The nurse took him out of the car seat and brought him to me on the table.  He quieted down right away and just snuggled up with me.  So the doc got busy.  He looked and looked.  And did not talk, which I thought was pretty unusual as he usually chatted about other things not related to my insides during exams.  Anyway… eventually he finished the procedure and came around and stood by the side of the table.  He had an awfully funny look on his face so I thought it might be bad news.  Finally I asked, “Well?”  And finally he said, “Well… it’s gone.”  YES!  That was pretty great news to hear.  I asked if that happens often and he said he had never seen it before in his experience.  I asked if we could go ahead and classify it as a minor miracle and he smiled, also being a Christian, and told me he thought perhaps we could.    

I have always considered Daniel a little miracle because of that.  Each child is.  Each child has their own special story.  Each child is a miracle of God and I am so thankful for each child that the Lord has given me.  (And for the other awesome children in my life, I can not tell you how grateful I am that I have not experienced the magnitude of pain that I am about to describe, with you!  Bless you all!)  God has a plan for each of our lives.  I feel like God started me off early with faith for this child because of the circumstance with the cancer.  I could have chosen to have the surgery.  But God had a plan for his life.  I have watched him grow up and at times been so proud.  He is so very smart and has such a kind heart.  Then the teen years arrived!  L  He began getting in trouble with drugs and problems at school when he was I believe about 16.  Possibly earlier but parents are usually the last to know!  We lived through the drug court years.  Weekly then bi-weekly visits before the judge and about a year and a half of rehab and counseling.  Finally he graduated from the program.  They have him a little plaque that says, “You are a miracle”.  I still have it and can actually look over and see it from my desk.  Again… I was so proud!  Over the next years I have continued to watch, pray and have faith that God will bring to pass the plans he has for this young man.  I have shared with him the special story that began his life and told him that I know God has a special purpose for him.  His heart is soft and I have seen him cry many times.  Even knowing he is called of God (in his mother’s opinion anyway) he has run hard and far!  I have recently learned that for the last several years he has been using drugs of the worst kind.  He has lied to everyone who loves him.  He is now helplessly addicted, spending more money on drugs than he is making at his job.  He is doing everything that people do when their next high is the focus of their lives.  His girlfriend Nicole is in the same condition.  We (her mother and I) have known for some time of her situation (although she regularly informs us that she is clean) but he maintained his innocence.  We thought he was helping her hide her addiction in order to stay together and keep their beautiful daughter Aubrey who just turned three years old.  They are now homeless.  They have recently been arrested, lost their vehicle and the custody of Aubrey.  CPS is now involved and Aubrey is with Nana Charlene.  I have not heard from him recently.  If he sees this little story on facebook or is told of it by friends he may be extremely angry.  I find myself past caring about his reaction.  I think though in his heart he would be grateful for your prayers.  One of the things he said to his sister recently was that he was not a bad person.  This is true.  He is not.  He has a very soft heart.  He is a very sick person. 

I have spent the last two days walking around in a daze and am emotionally exhausted.  I slept for 10 hours last night.  I got up this morning feeling pretty good and thought I could get through the day tear free… NOT!  So… I’ve been trying to take care of “stuff” as usual but with very puffy eyes and a very heavy heart.  I have cried out to God as most mothers who have children in crisis do.  Despite the circumstances I have faith that God has him in the palm of his hand.  That he will keep him and deliver and restore him.  He has reminded me again of the special word he gave me for this young man some time ago.  That he will be a “light to his generation”.  You see… he is not the only one.  There are millions of young people in our country, in the world, young people in our neighborhoods and in our families who are also in crisis.  Those of you who are praying people please join me and pray for Daniel and Nicole and little Aubrey.  Please pray for me too.  Yes I have faith!  I am also a mother and my emotions are very “volatile” right now.  J  Pray for our family.  Remember my dear mama.  She has not been feeling well and the doctors have not yet figured out why.  We are going to need our favorite little prayer warrior!  Pray for Nicole’s family.  They are also a good family full of kind people who also just want their daughter to be whole again.   Those of you who are not believers… just watch!  We are about to see a modern day miracle in the life of this young man.  Jesus is alive and well and is about to show himself in a mighty way.  How long must we watch?  I don’t know.  I am extremely tired!  I’m ready!  But I also know that God’s timing is perfect.  This is a statement of faith.  This is something I can’t fix.  But God can.  It’s his specialty.  J

Why would I write this and publish it for all the world to see?  I hesitate to do it.  I’m a pretty private person and would rather hide things that are painful and shameful.  Addiction is not a new thing in our family.  I experienced it as a teenager as my father struggled with alcohol.  This is no secret.  He would be happy to tell you his story of the depths of despair and redemption.  Our son Adam also travelled this road.  He also came to the point where life was just about as ugly as it gets.  Again, heartbreaking to watch.  By the grace of God he is recovering and doing well.  He is rebuilding his life.  I believe he would tell you it has been a very long hard road.  We are so happy to once again hear his larger than life laugh.  I also struggle with my own set of addictions as most of you know.  As I said, I am very much in need of your prayer support.  And I feel that there are so many others who also suffer and may not ask for help because they are too ashamed to talk about it.  But hiding it does not make it go away.  I should know!  Perhaps someone else will read this and it will encourage them to be brave and ask for help too.  The power of prayer and the loving support of people of faith moves mountains!  So thank you!

At this time the story has no ending but I trust that it will turn out very well!

Thursday, August 25, 2011

When Gaining Weight Is A GOOD Thing...

Retired life... What a ride it's been!  Let's see... I am three or four weeks in - I'm not sure which and I have not stopped long enough to even come up with a plan for the future.  And I don't even know what I've been doing!  Little trips here and there.  Visitors.  The garden.  Well... I did spend the entire day on Monday on the couch being sick.  :(  Bummer!  But I'm on the mend and have a full day planned.  Canning and preserving season has really just begun.  Today I need to dehydrate some more herbs, decide what to do with the yellow summer squash taking over my life out in the garden and make sure the new lettuce and spinach seeds I scattered last night for a fall crop stay moist.  Yesterday after mowing the grass I decided I better get out in the garden and prop up all the heavy tomato plants that have exploded out of the tomato cages that always seem so big at the beginning of the summer.  I swear I'll never buy another one.  Better to just pound in 6' T posts to stabilize the monsters which is what I did as darkness fell last night.  I'm still waiting to taste my first ripe tomato but it's getting very close!  I've got lots of cherries (my favorite) and big tomatoes turning yellow.  Pear shaped tomatoes.  I don't even remember planing them.  They may be volunteer from last year.  Along the sides of the garden lots of volunteer tomato plants sprouted and I didn't have the heart to pull them all.  They are growing up all intertwined in the chicken wire fence.  I finally ripped out the pea vines and gave then to the cows.  Then I tossed out about 15 giant squash that are too large to do anything with.  They shoved those around for a while before finally realizing that they are pretty tasty.  Even Red Bull got in on the squash action after satisfying his eternal itch by rubbing his neck so vigorously on the stabilizing wire of the power/phone pole that the entire pole was waving back and forth.  That was a little freaky!

But... on to the topic of fatness.  Why is it I always end up here?  :)  On Monday while laying around on the couch I was forced to admit that I was taking up a good deal more space than a few months ago.  I thought about what could possibly have caused the change in girth and what I would be willing to quit eating to reverse the circumference, I mean circumstance!  How depressing was that?!  Very, let me tell you!  I then began lamenting about the fact that I was going to have to find something to wear to my brother in law's wedding this weekend.  Hhmf!  Well... I started digging around in my closet and was delighted to find a couple of nice outfits that I bought when we went to Europe.  I was even fatter than so they still hang just slightly giving me the appearance of having lost weight.  Ha ha!  Now that's really sick!  But...that's when gaining weight is a good thing.  Now of course I'll come directly home from the wedding in Oregon
 and put those clothes away to never be worn again!  I do have to say though that the entire diet has not been a train wreck.  Just too much celebrating.

Here are some pics of what retired life has been looking like...

Last weekend we spent a couple of days at the beach in Ocean Shores with Jeff and Andrea.  We had a great time.  We were blessed with a perfect no fog day on Saturday.  Even though it was 80 degrees at at the house, just a short walk through the dunes it is always windy on the water so you almost always need a coat.  Even in August.  I was thrilled to find a whole sand dollar :)


Jeff and Andrea perched on driftwood by the trail head

Fresh seafood!  Salmon with lemon butter and prawns










Herb bouquet that I brought to the beach



We took the long way home via Chinook Pass.  Beautiful views of Mt Rainier!







Long drives call for long naps.  Kitty's always game for a nap!

Upcoming this weekend... wedding in Oregon.  Thought I would make some road trip snacks using the over abundance of squash and beets in the garden.  "Bacchini" bread (zucchini with banana added) and baked parm  beet chips.



 Now... since I can't decide which pic to insert next I'll just be done now.  :)  Have a great weekend everyone!

Ciao!






Wednesday, August 10, 2011

To Rejoice or Not to Rejoice - That is the Question

Let go with rejoice!  Why?  Well first of all.  I'm so fat!  How fat?  160.7 and blood sugar 125.  Ugg!  Why rejoice about that?  Well... I sure enjoyed getting that way!  How did I get that way?  First there was the trip to southern California to see my daughter Katie along with her husband Ish, toddler Charlotte and brand new baby girl Kamilla.  I loved visiting them.  Charlotte is so adorable and fun and exhausting :)  Kamilla is so very sweet!  I miss snuzzling her.  I know many of you have seen the pics I have posted to facebook but I'll do a little history in pics later.  Anyway... I assure you, there was no dieting in California!  Oh yes... most of that was self imposed.  It's not like they made me throw a pound bag of peanut M & M's in the grocery cart every time we went to the store.  Upon arriving home from CA I found my flowers and gardens in beautiful shape because my Aunt Jane and Uncle Jay where here and took care of them.  I spent four glorious days at home.  Two days catching up from vacation and then the weekend with Amberlyn, Bobby and his girlfriend Bailey visiting.  Then poof!  Back to Woodinville for a week to basically say g'bye to Valley Supply Co!  Yep!  Done!  Wow!  I'm still reeling!  Not only from slowly realizing that I no longer have a job but from all the culinary celebrating.  Pretty much everyone I know took me out to lunch/dinner to celebrate.  That was awesome!  :)  So yes... I'm FAT!  Waaaahhhhhhhhhhh!

I intended to announce my retirement on Monday morning (umm... last Monday morning) but found that I SO did not have time to do that as I had my little almost three year old grand daughter Aubrey with me.  I brought her home with me on Friday so she's been here almost a week now.  I decided that I would not consider myself retired until she goes home as there's not a whole lot of relaxing going on right now :)  But I've realized that this is what it's all about!  Having the time to spend on the really important things like running through the sprinklers with Aubrey and teaching her to sing Jesus Loves Me.  :)  How fun!  And if I look to my own dear mother as an example of how to do "retired" life well then my retirement will never start.  :)  I have not observed a great deal of relaxing going on in her life either!  Well... sure, there are periods of relaxation but they do not typically exceed 10 minutes.  That's about the amount of time it takes for someone's plate to become empty or their coffee to need refilling.  :)  I don't know how she does it!  But I also know that she finds great joy in her service to her husband, family, friends and most importantly to her God.

So what's next?  Honestly I don't know.  I do know that today there are more peas and beets to pick.  There is this little girl who desperately needs and does not want to take a bath :)  Then there is a produce extravaganza at Super 1 in Colville that I want to go check out with Aunty & Unc.  When we come home from that I need to think about dusting the house and making sure the guest rooms are ready for our weekend visitors.  I also promised to find a better bubble recipe for Aubrey's bubble wand.  I'm pretty sure that will take care of today.  And tomorrow?  Well... I'll just open that present when I get to it.

Now that I've told you what I've been up to for the last few weeks I'll show you too...

Here I am on a stroll with Charlotte.  In order to get a little exercise while in CA I took to taking Charlotte out for a "naptime" stroll.  The the sidewalk route through her neighborhood is almost exactly a mile.






















The landscape in her neighborhood includes things like this...
                                                                       Cactus


                                                                                                    A beautiful fern tree



enormous century plants

After a short time of walking and looking at the scenery Charlotte would fall fast asleep :)

And wake up refreshed and ready to go!  This is actually the way she emerged from her room one day after her nap... cell phone, sunglasses and purse.  Talk about your California girls!


And then there's baby Kami :)  Oh so sweet!

She doesn't do a lot yet... but some day she will be a wonderful playmate for her big sister who is already anxious to play with her...



Here's Mommy feeding baby Kami

And Mumsey with baby Kami

And my favorite pic of baby Kami with Mommy... 
Yes!  They match!  :)
 And then Aubrey came to visit...

We visited Grampa out in the field working on the fence


She helped Mumsey in the garden.  Here she is
inspecting the grapes.






















We did our hair and put our lipstick on together


She played in the creek with Big Lucy, Little Lucy and Tank


















She was always ready to feed Daffy

                                                    

She has a new favorite Uncle...






















She loved picking raspberries... unfortunately there were very few in the bowl when she was done with them...

Mostly she just enjoyed being outside and soaking up the sun a little...




















Well... the end of the story is that I wrote this last Thursday and intended to add the pics the next day but... poof!  It's almost a week later... but that's another blog post!

Ciao!


Friday, July 8, 2011

Anticipation!

Oh I'm soooo excited!  So many fun things to do this weekend!  In Chewelah even!  Who'd a thunk it?  Let's see... where to begin?  Chataqua!  This weekend Chewelah comes alive!  Our annual fair comes to town.  There will be live music all weekend long.  Carnival rides, food galore, all of our talented local artists will bring their beautiful products to be admired and purchased.  I always spend a few hours wandering through the craft booths.  My favorite of course is my friend Donna Talbot who paints so beautifully.  I've shown you my painting before but here it is again :)  in honor of Chataqua.


If you look closely on the porch you can see Lucy, Tank and even Bud the cat.  :)  I always smile when I walk by this painting in my bedroom.  Last winter she painted a beautiful valley scene from somewhere here in Chewelah on a giant saw blade.  It had a pretty barn and was personalized for the owner with their old pick up truck out in the field.  You really have to go see Donna at Chataqua!

My bff Brenda along with delightful husband Dale (really?  Did I just admit that?  :) Someone slap me and nobody tell him!) are coming to stay with us this weekend along with an undetermined number of their girls.  My Aunt Jane and Uncle Jay are visiting us too with their puppies and so we will just have a big ole party!  There will be roasted hot dogs and smores down at the fire pit.  The dogs will tromp through the creek and shake off their wet bodies all over everyone.  It will be great!  Of course we will go into town and hang out at Chataqua.  I might even try a deep fried Twinkie :)  Or NOT!  Or maybe...

On Sunday we will get up early and head for Silverwood.  Yippy!  Always a blast.  It's become an annual event and so much fun!  I mean, where else can you observe so many American Blue Whales in their natural habitat?  :)  Yes, of course I'm including myself!  I'll make the biggest splash of all.  I can't believe it's been a whole year since we last floated the lazy river and spun crazily down the family size 8 person raft water slide.  :)

And then early Tuesday morning I get to fly to S CA to see my brand new grand daughter Kami.  She's one week old today.  Here she is snuggled in Mommy's bed...









And here she is with Mommy and big sister Charlotte...


I know... sorry, blurry pics.  I took a pic of the pics with my phone off of facebook :)  So... horrible picture quality.  But I just wanted you to see her.  Her mommy needs to email or at least text me some pics.  But I will take lots of pics when I go down there next week.

Other tasty things to anticipate from my garden... I say anticipate because they are not ready yet!

 Sugar peas













Zucchinni...


Fennel and green beans

English Cucumbers


Tasty herbs.  Chicken wire is self explanatory!  Stupid chickens!

Super Pumpkins


Tomatoes

This is a new kiwi vine I just planted.  The fruit is small and smooth skinned.  No fuzzies!


Beets...or is that beats?  No... what a dork!

And this is looking down on my tiny sunflowers.  It will be fun to compare this "before" picture with the one I will take when they are in full bloom :)


And finally, here are a couple of the special meals I have been blessed to share with my Aunt Jane and Uncle Jay who are residing in my yard.  I say residing because they rented a PO box in Chewelah a couple of days ago.  I don't have the greatest yard in the world to plug your RV into... but it's gotta be close :)  Not anything I've done mind you!  But my awesome husband has worked very hard on our place and God has blessed us with "world class" scenery.  Any of you who have not been to visit me... this is your invitation!

These are meals prepared at Diamond Dave's Micro Ranch and Orchard :)

This is Kokanee (land locked - lake salmon) that my neighbor Denny gave us.  Unc filleted them which was no small feat.  Well actually, yes it was.  It was a tiny feat :)  Tiny fish.  But they were fabulous seared in the grill pan and topped with his awesome fresh salsa.  This recipe came from a Weight Watchers cookbook.  Some of my very favorite recipes are from my WW cookbooks.  I've got different ones than he does so I'm going enjoy perusing through his.  If you have not picked up one of the more recent Weight Watchers cookbooks I recommend doing it.  The food is amazing!  You just have to limit yourself to ONE portion instead of the three you are going to want to eat.  Also in this pic is a salad I threw together from greens from my garden and a few of the other usual suspects.  Figs and goat cheese make this salad.  I also made a little crustini with oil and balsamic vinegar.  If you stalk my facebook page you will already have seen this but I thought it was very pretty and blog worthy.  A very healthy meal.

















This you have not seen.  It was yesterdays breakfast at Cafe Taylor... aka Aunt & Unc's RV.  Mmmmm!  Huevos rancheros...  almost too pretty to eat.  But I did it anyway :)  He's quite a chef!  (Insert sly grin here)


Well... guess I better get busy!  It's a big day, big weekend, big trip next week.  My future's so bright I gotta wear shades!

Ciao!

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Happy Birthday Kamilla Jeanette!

Life has been so busy lately that I've all but abandoned my blog.  Between the garden, animals, work, mowing, mowing and mowing it's hard to come up with time to obsess about my diet :)   But!  Today is a day for celebrating and worthy of a blog post!  This afternoon my new granddaughter arrived.  Her name is Kamilla Jeanette Muhammad.  Kamilla after her great Granny, my mom whose name is Camilla.  And my middle name is Camille so I claim the name too :)  And Jeanette is her paternal grandmothers name.  So that makes three grandmothers very happy!  We have not had the opportunity to get to know her very well yet through pictures because Mommy is busy recovering from the c-section birth and Daddy is super busy taking care of big sister Charlotte (15 months old).  But I do have one picture of her.  She's all brand new.  Naked as a jay bird!  Certified organic!  I'm a very proud grandmother and feel truly blessed by God as she is my third little granddaughter.  So tiny and adorable!  :)

She was due to be born on July 8th but the Dr. discovered that she was already in marching position.  Feet first and stomping her way out.  They decided they better help her along.  I am sad that I am not there right now.  I'm scheduled to go see her on July 12th.  It will be a long two weeks!  

While I waited for baby Kami to arrive I decided to go visit the Chewelah Farmers Market at lunch time.  Due to being away from home with work and traveling this was my first trip to the market this year.  I'm always excited to go!  I just love market day.  This year our market has a new location.  It is now in Chewelah's beautiful park on Hwy 395.   I think this was a great move!  It's much more visible to people driving by and has attracted more farmers and craftspeople.  My own garden is a bit sluggish getting started this year.  I still have very high hopes though!  Meanwhile, I'm happy to enjoy the wonderful local produce.















I love meeting our local farmers.  Today Andrew and Celeste Engell of Simple Gifts Farm were kind enough to let me take a picture of their market stall.   They have a small 20 acre farm West of Addy, WA - just 10 or so miles north of Chewelah where they raise beautiful produce and one very cute small son.  My favorite market pick today was at their stall.  I found some wonderful purple potatoes that you can see in the pictures above of my produce purchases.  


The sign was not cooperating with us.  It was too busy dancing in the wind but that's ok.  I'll post a link to their blog:  http://engells-simplegiftsfarm.blogspot.com/p/about-us.html
and from there you can get to their farm website.  Thanks so much Andrew and Celeste!  I'll see you again soon.  Perhaps even tomorrow at the Colville market!  :)  They inspired me today to come home and pull a few weeds, water a few plants and be a little less depressed about today's little mini tragedy on my own tiny farm.  

Many of you already know what's coming because I posted this on facebook but for those of you who don't... well... this was just sad!  We've had chicken trouble this year!  I'm actually ashamed of our chickens right now.  I had to buy eggs today!  :(  Anyway....  our chicken coup is in serious need of a tear down and rebuild.  Unfortunately Dave has been working on the railroad all the live long day for way too many days in a row!  It's just not going to happen this year.  Consequently their laying, nesting, sitting is all messed up.  We just need a new chicken plan.  We have not had many chicks this year.  Our second batch consisted of just two chicks who were very adorable and growing very nicely.  Every day I would see them out and about with mama hen.  I was very dismayed when I looked out this morning and saw Bud the kitty, Lucy and Tank the yellow labs and a very unnaturally still little black chick.  Boo hoo!  At first I thought it might have been kitty's doing because he is constantly stalking the chicken coup.  I'm quite sure it was Tank though because when I questioned him he exhibited some seriously guilty behavior!  It took me about an hour to wrap my head around the task of picking up the chick by scooting him with a broom into the car wash tub and then without looking at it, taking it over to the fence and flinging it as far as possible into the tall grass on the other side of the raspberry patch.  What a fool!  What part of Labrador Retriever did I not understand???  When I returned from my trip to the market guess who was back on the porch taking a nap with Tank?  Yep!  Chicky!  It took me another two hours to work up the courage to face the crisis again.  I used the same sweep and scoop technique but the second time I placed it in a Styrofoam take out container and deposited it in the garbage can so TANK couldn't re-retrieve it.  Ugg!  Well.. life goes on - unless you're name is Chicky!  Ok enough sadness!  :)

On the diet front.  Just call me YoYo :)  I was doing pretty well... but then I went to Woodinville for work and had a total train wreck of a food week!  Way too much indulging!  Let's see.  there was the Maltby Cafe where I helped Bobby eat this.. the Maltby Cafe version of French toast.  Insert big sigh here!  


Then there was a night out with my buddy Brenda where we went to the movie theater where you can eat dinner and watch a movie at the same time.  So that was delicious and about a million calories!  The following night we (yes Brenda, whenever there's trouble she in the middle of it with me!) met our good friend James at Arnie's for dinner.  I didn't take a picture of our table.  It was criminal!  :)  And to top it off, I enjoyed BBQ ribs at our company BBQ.  Oh wait!  More topping!  When I got home I had a raging craving for Mexican food so I made Dave take me to get some of these...

And finally on Wednesday night which is ladies bible study night I was puzzling over what to bring since it was my turn to bring snacks.  I came up with this honey nut mix.  It was SO GOOD!  And I ate way too much!  There was obviously walnuts plus, cocoa almonds, slivered almonds, peanuts, dried cherries, chocolate chips all heated up and drizzled with honey.


Fortunately the ladies did me a huge favor by eating it all up so that there were no left overs to devour on the way home!  

But you know... I really can only go so far before I must finally reign myself in - or explode!  So I'm back!  After a week of carbo-loading though I was still jonesing for a little pasta so here's how I salvaged my self respect on that dish.  I realized that the chances of me overeating pasta if I made a bunch of it were - 100% certain so I only cooked a handful.  Literally... small pan, one handful.  I added carrot matchsticks to the water just a couple of minutes before the pasta was done.  Whole grain rotini too mind you!  Then I drained it and added a few bacon crumbles (pork fat rules!  Even a tablespoon at a time!) some sundried tomatoes, a little goat cheese and a lot of fresh raw spinach.  Sprinkle with pine nuts and ta da!  Very satisfying and tasty.  No additional olive oil or butter.  A little butter would have been nice but, well you read my embarrassing confession.  


After all the twists and turns of that culinary action adventure I weighed in at 156.4 and glucose 84.   :)  Now that reminds me of one of my favorite country songs which goes something like this... I was born again and then back slipped, I went on a diet then ate the fridge... I finally started to write that book about all the twists that my life's took, and surprised at what I've overcome!  That's just me on my diet, Day 1.

Ciao!