Raise your hand if you are sick of winter...Or, how delish are these leftovers?

photo by Amanda Glaus from MN

This is what the weather looks like where I live right now, and this is good compared to what it was like down in the country where we live. It was Girls Night tonight, but got pushed to Girls Afternoon due to the impending weather. I get together with my friends C and M, whom I used to work with at the Bank. We get together not as often as we would like, but usually every other month or so. We all make food then sit and eat said food and talk about what is new in each of our lives. Today, our food was awesome like always! C made turkey meatballs with a glaze of Cocktail sauce and grape jelly and some mustard and her famous guac, M brought veggies and dip and a pan of chocolate chip cookie bars and I made popcorn salad and made a loaf of cheesy bread (which I will share this upcoming week). I also brought a bottle of Rose Regale for them to try-it was a 10 on everyones list.

My plate of food this afternoon

Last night Dude and I were going to have date night and decided to ask Drama Queen to come since we were going out for Prime Rib-and she hadn't had any for a long, long time. We went to Wiederholt's in Miesville, MN. It is an old fashioned supper club that has been owned by the same family for maybe 60 years. It is old school. Dark paneling, red curtains and carpeting, old fashioned chandeliers with the orange bulbs. They serve you a tray of crudities with dip and ice sprinkled over the veggies to keep cold, an assortment of crackers and fresh buns, a stick of REAL butter, salads and your main course. It is always busy on the weekends, so a nice man offered DQ and me his chairs and we all enjoyed a cocktail while we waited-DQ had a Shirley Temple only (she was our sober cab-I must say it is quite handy!) We all ordered the Prime Rib-Dude and I had the 24 ounce cut will Boo had the 16 ounce. We knew we would have enough to bring home and enjoy this evening. I made some baked potatoes, warmed the meat in au jus and reheated the remaining cheesy bread from this afternoon. It was delightful. Just enough for a small supper after watching an awesome Daytona 500. We are not big sports buffs in our house, but we love us some racing! We have a local track only 16 miles from our house, so we like to get to at least one race each year.

So, while the weather is awful (I don't even want to think about us having to drive in this crap-thankfully DQ is off due to the holiday) we had our fair share of wonderful food this weekend. Can't remember the last time we had a dinner bill of $114......darn Cosmos!

Who else needs 40 hours in a day?

I have the best intentions. I keep buying mags promising simple meals, I keep tagging cookbooks with recipes to throw in the crock pot, I keep buying ingredients with great intentions. And the days escape me. And I'm exhausted. These allergies are getting the best of me and I have absolutely no ambition nor any gumption. I keep praying for a hard freeze just so I can get my mojo back! I am working almost every day this week with a cleaning project they have going on. The big thing this week is my high school reunion. 25 years. My gravy, how did this happen? Oh wait, because I'm old, that is how! My high school BFF forgot the date and scheduled a college visit for her son. Panic!! Some wonderful girls from high school that I reconnected with on Facebook and I are meeting at a hotel for a little pre-party party. Hmmm, reminds me of high school. We partied at hotels a lot. Don't tell my folks.

So this week is shot. I really need to get back on the proverbial horse and pull out some pans and food and just do it.

Now I need to go pluck all the greys from my hair, find something black to make me look thinner and get some hemorrhoid cream to make my eyes look non-crowed foot (footed?)

I am thankful for today

This is my favorite tree in my yard. I couldn't even fit the whole thing in my viewfinder without it looking scrawny and far away. The tree is half dead-barely any leaves grow on it anymore. We have lost about 5 huge limbs from it. But I love it. I sit on my deck and look at it. I sit on the golf cart by the fire and look at it. I listen to it creaking in the wind. It stands like a fortress, guarding our edge of the property against evils of the outside world.

I spent a good portion of the day out in the gardens.

Have the garden bed pretty full and will use the remaining dirt to fill in a flower garden that didn't turn out too well and to revitalize my strawberry patch which has been taken hostage and annihilated by some strange weed. I bought 20 new strawberry plants to put back in.

The plant smack dab in the middle is a strawberry plant. The rest are these stupid weeds that choked out about 30 strawberry plants. I dug up those rude weeds and hopefully they will not return, or at least not with the vigor they came with last year. I hope that next spring the patch will be filled with juicy red fruit again. The rhubarb is at the end of this small garden and it is going great. My tulips and other bulbs are growing like the dickens. I love tulips and I can't wait to see their small, beautiful heads swaying in the breeze before being cut for vases.

The lilac bushes are budding and in about 3 weeks their beautiful perfume will fill the air. What smells better than lilacs? I am sad that I don't have a desk anymore to bring them in and set them upon. They would be a big HACCP violation at the cereal plant! I will just have to set them about the house and overload my senses here.

After several hours of shoveling dirt and kneeling in dirt, I so deserved one (or 5) of these. Thank you to whoever decided hops and grains together would be a refreshing treat.

I'm thinking about moving to the kitchen to make some bars for work for tomorrow. I took my last baggie of pumpkin out. I have just a sad feeling in my heart and not sure I have it in me tonight. We lost a member of our church in a horrific accident this last week. Only a little older than myself and the other man lost was a young 22 year old from Iowa. Semi accident that was fiery and beyond belief. I also just read on Vodka Mom's site that she is taking down her blog. She always made me laugh-well, at her funny posts. Choked me up on her serious ones. I also just read that my blogging friend Donna has put her beautiful home up for sale for a move they are making. You know she is sad when she didn't make any sexual innuendos on her site and she made sausage for heaven sake!

So I am posting these pictures to remind myself of all that is beautiful and good and happy-even the weeds. While they invaded my space, they are still a gift from God and I am reminded yet again to be thankful for all the graces he has given me.

Promise, food soon. Many earmarked pages I've torn out of magazines!

Mother of the Year

Oil Change-check

Grocery store-check

Laundry-check *and still in progress

Dreadlocks taken out-check

Nap-check

Wake up at 6:17..........and realize you forgot to pick up Drama Queen at 6 from Driver's Ed...oh crap, oh crap, where are my pants, why can't I find them? I left them on the bench, where is the phone? Call....voicemail picks up, crap. Yell "I'm coming" into voicemail as I'm running out the door with one eye open, mismatched shoes and the pants from the dirty clothes pile. Cue my ringtone with said daughter telling me "....I called Pat since you forgot to come get me and we are almost home". Hang head in shame and turn the car around. Thank God for my friend Pat.

Guess I'm not getting that Mother of the Year award again this year.

Plus, while I took a nap and left dinner in the oven-for 2 hours too long, I was concerned. It looked a little overdone, but was still very tasty.

I had just made a pot roast a few days ago, but I'm still getting used to my new Crock Pot and it didn't cook like it did in my old one. Today I found some nice pot roasts on sale and picked up a couple. I used my clay cookers and it turned out great. It looks a little 'charred' but it tasted really good. Since I overslept, forgot child, and was barely awake, side dishes were, gasp! instant potatoes and stuffing. No one complained and Drama Queen ate like she hadn't see food in 3 months. When making this observation she just jammed that knife further in my back with "well, you don't cook for us as much as you did when you worked days".

Can someone pull that out for me?

Since I totally blew my day with the nap and now feel like I have cotton balls for eyes, my planned masterpieces will have to wait for tomorrow-after we finish cleaning the house. Dude went a little crazy and broke out the vacuum and while I did laundry he rearranged the living room. Holy smokes-you know it is bad when he volunteers to vacuum.

Oh, and here is another question: what do I do with kumquats? You know how you always hear you shouldn't shop when you are hungry? Apparently you shouldn't shop when you haven't slept in 19 hours either. They looked like adorable little oranges-and I have no idea what to do. Do I peel them and eat them? Any help you can give this Horrible Mommy would be great.

Maybe I should make her a cake.......

Breakfast-not for the faint of heart

or for those that have morals or standards. Yep, no Wheaties (or rather Tootie Fruities or Marshmallow Mateys) in my bowl this morning. Not even a glass.

Just an ice cold Bud Light Lime at, well, six-ish in the morning when it is two below zero outside and the car doors were frozen shut when we got out of work. Do I normally have beer in the morning? Well, not always, but there are mornings when we come home, pop in a movie and enjoy one or two. Kind of like how normal people would have one at six at night. Of course, having had a night from H-E-double hockey sticks didn't hurt the desire to have one. Four men who acted like little girls tends to make me reach for a stick to beat them with and a beer to help me mellow out so I don't take the aggression out on the children. Well, maybe it just lessens the aggression.....kidding, kidding.

Remember when I said we played Wii and looked like idiots doing so? Here is proof:

wish you could tell how gorgeous the kitchen is-total envy

And Hermit Crab and I didn't win at the casino, but did have good Chinese afterwards. Hey, what are those things called (like you were there and could just "Duh Tami, there were _____"), but they were a puff pastry type dough that were small and twisted kind of like a purse, and there was maybe cream cheese in the middle, and possibly quickly deep fried? I didn't see the tag on them and just decided to try one. And promptly went back for two more. Which I am sure aren't good for my hips, but holy chalupa, they were good.

Here she is at the casino. Wasn't sure if I could take a picture inside the gaming floor, so played it safe outside. Still can't believe she is 18.....when I am barely more than that myself!

I'll be back with food later. After an oil change, grocery store, 9 loads of laundry, post office, vacuuming, taking out my dreadlocks, dropping a deposit for the daughter. Oh, I'm kidding.....I don't do her banking anymore!

Happy, umm, phooey, what day is it? Oh yeah, Wednesday!

Reality is setting in

Hermit Crab is turning 18 in 4 days. I spent the afternoon with my best friend from high school (our 25th reunion is coming up-we nearly cried about that too!) shopping for her birthday presents. I think I went a little overboard, but this is a momentous occasion and deserves to be special. She wrote a very detailed list with exclamation marks next to the ones she really wants like the pre-sale order of the Twilight DVD and a Wicked puzzle. Which I found out she found on-line and not at a B&N store-grrrr. I also went on-line today and paid her tuition deposit for college. Sigh. It is really happening. Most days lately I want to kick her to the curb as she has been extra lazy and mouthy. But as I clicked on the send button, it really hit me. She is leaving me in about 5 months. I know she will be home at Thanksgiving and Christmas and all summer working, she is, for all intents and purposes, leaving. I don't know that I'm ready.

More tomorrow...

I deleted my rambling as it made no sense. For those that asked about the pie dough cutters, check out http://www.thefind.com/kitchen/info-pie-cutter. They had some really nice ones that I may have to order too :)


Hang loose my friends. I'll be back with more food. And hopefully less butt munching.

My first blog

Well, welcome to the real world. Full of bloggers and on-line friends. A country mouse like me blogging on the big 'ol web? Scary. Why, oh why, would I choose to do this? The best answer would be that due to an utterly scary upheaval in my life, I find myself at a crossroad. Given the boot (downsized) by a company that I had worked at for 8 years, I was lost and searching. Full of fear and anger, I didn't know what to do next. So I decide to do a 180 and leave the white collar workforce behind and work at a factory. What??? A factory? Didn't your father toil at a factory (albeit a good factory job) for 35 years with hopes that his child would fare better than he? Yes, but it was a good fit for me. I have found that the older I have turned, the less butt I was willing to, well, you fill in the blank. I know this isn't the answer for everyone-you don't even want to know what my family has thought and said-but is working for us. I love that I go in, put in my 12 hours and can see the fruits of labor at the end of my shift. I know that I have done a good job and have benefited the public in some small way, and that makes me feel good. So back to why I would do this? It is so very much out of my comfort zone but that is the only way we grow as people. Pushing the envelope, thinking outside the box, all of those million of stupid sayings coming true for me. Through this blog, I hope to learn about myself, learn new lessons to make me a better person, and honestly, just rant and rave to someone who will listen and not make excuses for why for the fifth day in a row the dishwasher didn't get loaded or that they forget to tell me the lunch account has been overdrawn for the past week and the poor woman in charge of lunch accounts had to leave me an embarrassed message that I need to bring it current. Yep, totally selfish, but hopefully also helping me grow. Being a grown up-did your parents ever tell you it was this hard?