Does this count?

It didn't take long. This week I fell off the one sentence a day bandwagon. I just updated Wed-Friday and have no recollection of Mon/Tuesday. It was short lived, but at least it was lived.

I am not stopping. I am just stopping HERE on the blog. I've been doing double the work, posting both here and in my 280daily.com website that Katie (Yea!) suggested. Frankly, I prefer the 280 daily website - it reminds me and it is easier!

Today -

Michael: Mommy! I think I saw a dingo!

Mommy: Really? Do you know what a dingo is?

Michael: It's a really fast dog.

Mommy: Where did you learn that?

(While in my head hearing Elaine from Seinfeld say, "Maybe a DINGO ate your baby!")

Michael: Wild Kratts

I Love Wild Kratts. I wish it was a bumper sticker. If you have children preschool age, take a look at it on PBS Kids:

http://pbskids.org/wildkratts/

There's a cartoon portion of the program in the middle. However, it is sandwiched on either end by the Kratts brothers running around and introducing animal facts in real life. It is all quite enthralling! Michael continually tells me all sorts of new facts about animals that he learns from it!

Bed!

Wintry Mixes

On Friday night, we received our first snow of the season - a wintry mix as deemed by Weather Channel.

While Brian was making our delicious breakfast, I asked Michael: "Do you want to go play with the snow on the deck?"

If Michael knew to say, "Heck yes I would!" I think he would have.

Then begins what I am going to call The Bacon Trilogy.

"Michael, would you like some bacon?"

"We'll feed it to you so you don't have to take your snow gloves off and come inside."

"Would you like some more?"

After breakfast, there was the sledding and the shoveling of the driveway.

I can assure you - that if anything REALLY bad happens to Michael on that sled - I am absolutely taking NO blame for this. I know the TWO people I will be thinking can live with it on their conscious.

And my sweeties:

We went inside for hot cocoa (and hot milk with honey and marshmallows on it for M). Michael told me, "Mommy, snow is THE BEST!"

Well, you can hang with your dad on that one because your mom is a tropical asian flower from Houston who busted her front tooth doing "winter sports" so I'm not as much of a fan as you are son.

01.22.12

01.22.12

Volunteers for Liturgy of the Word came over today for a BBQ lunch. It was great! Had a great time talking to a volunteer named Michelle! She has 5 kids and her mom lives with her. She is super funny and talks a lot. I love it! I wonder if we'll be good friends one day...hmmm

Pictures from the first sledding of the year coming soon. I think. :)

Catch up!

01.21.12

Woke up to our first snow last night! Michael ran into my room and said, "Mommy! It snowed!!!" The wintry mix was a bit tough to shovel (heavier than powdery snow), but Brian and I knocked our long driveway out in no time flat! Pictures to follow!

01.20.12

TGIF! Ran errands in Newark. We played Monopoly for family dinner/game night. Michael got shut out early and was acting like a butthead because he was SO very tired that we put him to bed pronto!

01.19.12

Brian came back from Pittsburgh early today! He was supposed to be in at 10pm, but got a flight out at NOON! So we got a quick peek at him around 2pm at home before he headed back into work. What a treat for him to be home at a normal hour instead of late at night!

For Brandi - and Whomever Else is Curious about Steak

One of my most avid blog readers and commentors, Brandi, seemed quite impressed with our dinner of steak sauce and a red wine reduction.

In all honesty, it is super easy to make and Brian usually takes care of it - in about 15 minutes. Anyone can do it! It IS delicious!

Here's the recipe if anyone is interested. Because I'm not the pioneer woman and going to take pictures of me making it at every step:

2 Tb of a mixture of several kinds of peppercorns, or white peppercorns
2 to 2 1/2 lbs. steak 3/4 to 1 inch thick

A hot platter
Salt

1 Tb butter
2 Tb minced shallots or green onions
1/2 cup stock or canned beef bouillon
1/3 cup cognac
3 to 4 Tb softened butter
Sauteed or fried potatoes
Fresh water cress

Place the peppercorns in a big mixing bowl and crush them roughly with a pestle or the bottom of a bottle.

Dry the steaks on paper towels. Rub and press the crush peppercorns into both sides of the meat with your fingers and the palms of your hands. Cover with waxed paper. let stand for at least half an hour; two or 3 hours are even better, so the flavor of the pepper will penetrate the meat.

Sauté the steak in hot oil and butter as described in the preceding master recipe. Remove to a hot platter, season with salt, and keep warm for a moment while completing the sauce.

Pour the fat out of the skillet. Add the butter and shallots or green onions and cook slowly for a minute. Pour in the stock or bouillon and boil down rapidly over high heat while scraping up the coagulated cooking juices. Then add the cognac and boil rapidly for a minute or two more to evaporate its alcohol. Off heat, swirl in the butter and half-tablespoon at a time. Decorate the platter with the potatoes and water cress. Pour the sauce over the steak, and serve.

From:

http://cookingwithjulian.blogspot.com/2011/05/julia-childs-steak-au-poivre.html

Notes:

Where it says:

Sauté the steak in hot oil and butter as described in the preceding master recipe.

First, you heat the oil and butter together in the pan. You'll see the butter melt. And then you will start to see the butter bubbles subside. This is when you know your oil/butter is hot enough to ear the steaks. Important step and thing to notice.

Second, if you are afraid of cholesterol, you shouldn't try this recipe.

Thirdly, make it according to the recipe the first time to know what it is SUPPOSED to taste like. Afterwards, I take all sorts of shortcuts because I'm lazy. Like, I don't hand crush my own peppercorns. I just use a pepper mill. And if I'm super behind, I just marinate for 30 minutes or not at all. Of course, it's not as good. But if I'm hungry, I won't care.

Fourth, if you want to make a red wine reduction, you just substitute the cognac with red wine and reduce it to cook off the alcohol.

Hope that helps! Make the sweet potatoes in the microwave while the steak is cooking!

P

Jesus and Monopoly

Michael created this at preschool this year:

Michael's latest thing is playing games. Lots of them. No surprise since he is in OUR family.

I was never a big fan of monopoly growing up, but Michael loves to play it now. In this picture, Michael took all my money. Yes, Michael, not Brian. I was playing, but my side of the board is now blank. I guess I am no Donald-Trump-Real-Estate-Mogul.

We did this for about 2 hours last Saturday. We meant to go to philly to touch something called the Liberty Bell. Instead, we stayed home and did this. We are so happy to be home!

Ignore my messy kitchen back there. In all honesty, that is "CLEAN" for my kitchen. :)

P

01.18.12

01.18.12

Sometimes, I wish I would just shut my mouth at bible study. I'm not the most insightful person that ever existed. Skipped Michael's last day of basketball. He doesn't like it anyways. Instead, we stayed home and built an obstacle course that we timed his best time on.

01.17.12

01.17.12

Only left the house today to deliver a meal to a friend whose husband has left indefinitely to stay with his friend on his couch. While she is pregnant with their 4th child. Makes me so thankful for my husband and hopeful my small meal is helpful to her.

01.16.12

01.16.12

Today gets 2 because Michael said to me today,

"Mommy, I love you so much. You say yes a lot. You play fun games with me. You spend lots of time with me and I just have so much fun with you. I love being with you."

Seriously? Life does not get any better than this. Thank you, Michael, for a Mommy Pat on the Back. Love you and right back at you, my Le Chat Bebe.

P

01.16.12

01.16.12

Day in bed with Michael. Got out to eat breakfast. Then right back into my bed to cuddle, read books, play with our new "toy," and MONOPOLY! Back downstairs for lunch. Finally got dressed. Made it out of the house at 4:30pm. Original target? 10:30am. OH WELL!

01.15.12
We were so late today that we were late for late mass. Eek. Family impromptu run to dq tonight for ice cream after dinner. It was 20 deg outside.

$0.99 per lb

I love buying a whole chicken because it goes on such super sale at $0.99 per lb and you get many meals out of it. I am blogging about it because this week, I made 3 meals out of one chicken. 3 meals out of $7 worth of meat!

I started with slow cooking the entire thing in my crock pot via this recipe:

http://thehappyhousewife.com/cooking/whole-chicken-in-a-crock-pot/

You will have to copy and paste that link because I do not know how to highlight on my new christmas toy.

The chicken came out very very moist but it tasted a bit too "chicken-y" to me. However, I am happy to overlook it considering how little effort it took to make it!

Then, I did what that link said and made chicken stock overnight in the same crock pot!

From "all this work," I did the following:

1. Crock pot chicken for dinner with quinoa and steamed squash.

2. Made chicken noodle soup in my le creuset with my delicious broth and a little bit of the leftover chicken.

3. Used the leftover shredded chicken in my favorite chicken enchilada recipe with Mexican rice and black beans.

I had to post about it because it was so easy and took very little work! If you are one that normally shies away from that whole chicken, I hope it encourages you to pick it up next time!

And if you like butter, go here:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Roast-Chicken-with-Herb-Butter-Onions-and-Garlic-104597

After making that, a Costco chicken doesn't taste as good as it once did!

Bonnie nuit,

P

01.13.12 and 01.14.12

01.13.12

Learned how to crochet today! Went to a "Working Moms Playdate," which does NOT mean we actually have a "job" per say. But it's a play date where the kids play together happily and us moms bring a little project we are working on! Fabulous! Michael met a new little friend named Olivia, who was really sweet, and I got my life organized for the year with my goals and whatever dates I needed to know (like Christina's wedding!).

01.14.12

I clogged a toilet, which Brian then used. That then overflowed. Who's to blame for that one? I have NEVER in my life caused a toilet to OVERFLOW completely ON MY OWN. I'm not the only one to blame. I probably should have told him. I didn't know he was going to use THAT toilet!

Next up - a post on how Michael ROMPED us on Monopoly.

P

A Sentence A Day

I love Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project.

I read an article about her in the latest Good Housekeeping and she suggested starting a "One Sentence a Day" journal. I love it. Not overwhelming, and completely doable.

So doable, I've been writing about a paragraph a day. And I've kept up with it for about 13 days! I will post Day 1-12 here soon. Figure it might be a cute little book - one day!

So for today -

01.12.12
Started putting presents away - remarkably enough room for many things. Michael's games are out of control - not enough room for that, but we love playing games - so GONNA MAKE ROOM! Michael had a Wii playdate with Colin, which ended up at Margherita's for Pizza! SO SO SO very proud of my little guy who was well behaved, sat and ate his pizza quietly and on his bottom like an adult, and said: Please, Thank you, and was well mannered. My friend's 2 kids were bouncing off the wall and not listening at all to their mother. To their defense, they are part of 3 children households - and sometimes - that's just the way life is. It's not a bad reflection on their mother, it's just wild and crazy and totally normal. I rarely ever find 3 children households that are calm.

The shopaholic in me thinks I NEED this:

I don't like to tell my inner shopaholic "No." Ouch.

VOILA! Let's see how long this can last. Taking bets -

What date do YOU think will be the last day I actually do this?

I am going to give myself a little cushion. I may not post a sentence EVERYday. But my goal is to post at least once every 5 days with ALL 5 days covered in that post.

And please do not post: January 18th. It will hurt my feelings. And don't all post at once! HAHAH! Thank you for those who stuck with me while I have apparently given up on blogging!