Pray for baby Stellan

Please pray for baby Stellan. He's very sick. Here is his momma's blog.

Yum!!!

So, remember that Grilled Caribbean Chicken that I put on the menu for this week? Yeah, it was for Thursday, but I didn't feel like making what was on the menu for today, so it got bumped up. And it was soooooo good. Wow. I will confess that I didn't quite follow the recipe... due in large part to availability issues. And I cooked the chicken on the stove. It was yummy. We WILL be having this again, very soon!!

In other news.... we had a smallish St. Patrick's Day party, and it was a blast!! A bunch of different people brought bread, and it was all sooooo good. Somebody found baguettes at a bakery here, and they taste JUST like the ones from Panera. I will be buying some of my very own soon. We also made Shamrock shakes, like the ones I've heard they have at McDonald's in the states around this time. They were yummy, too! =)

Food!

Okay, so yesterday I made Pumpkin Chip Muffins, and they're really good! They'd be a bit better if I hadn't accidentally turned off the timer instead of the oven, like I intended. So they're a bit dryer and darker than I would prefer, but still edible! I used Mini-semisweet chips instead of big normal ones, and I think it worked out great.

Now, on my weekly layout of what I'd like to accomplish each day, I have down for Saturday to do the next week's menu. Up until today, this had yet to happen. But for some reason I actually got it all done today!! I don't know why, let's not ask too many questions, mkay?

Monday: Chicken tacos
Tuesday: Veggie/hamburger stew (we're having people over for St. Patrick's day, so there will be more than that...)
Wednesday: Onion Beef Muffin Cups- never had these, but just looking at the picture made my mouth water. And something on the side.
Thursday: Grilled Caribbean Chicken, Mushroom Rice Pilaf, and probably salad. Or something.
Friday: Hot Dog Soup. Sounds weird, I know. We shall see. I do love me some hot dogs!!
Saturday: Best Chicken Ever, and some side dish.
Sunday: Corn dogs (home made!!!), french fries.

Saturday we're going to go on a boat trip, so I will try and make the chicken dish in the morning, or something like that... And since I read that that Caribbean Chicken needs to marinate, I think I will throw it all in a zip-loc bag after grocery shopping on Monday, toss it in the freezer, and pull it back out on Thursday. That's my big plan.

Tuesday and Thursday are looking kind of busy, actually, so the freezer idea, and the veggie soup in the crock pot are good ideas! *pats self on back*

Well, the rain finally stopped for the most part! It rained a bit this morning, but then was sunny and hot the rest of the day. And it rained off and on yesterday, like, oh, when Ryan needed to go to school... so I ended up driving him because I didn't want to be trapped in the house again all day. When we're trapped at home all day, Max ends up doing stuff like this:

Randomness

I suppose a better title may have been "Story of My Life," seeing as how the two are synonymous. Because in this post you will see not only pictures of Max playing in the living room, but also Ryan co-hosting the "Night of Talent" at school, and singing the "Million Dollar Song." See? Told you it was random. =)

Max and I had some new friends over on Thursday, and before they arrived I pulled out some more toys. Which worked out great for Max since I'm pretty sure she was bored silly of the toys that have been out for a long time at this point. Yeah, she was pretty happy with all the new stuff she could throw on the floor and/or shove in her mouth.

We also played some tunnels and such, which she semi-enjoyed. Still a bit too young for those, but she crawled around them.

So it's raining. And it's been raining for quite some time now. It started Sunday afternoon... and it's now Wednesday morning. It might pause for a few minutes, enough for our street, at least, to drain. Then it starts again. Most of the city is under some amount of water. Cool to look at, not cool to drive through or live in, however.

Monday morning I drove Ryan to school because it had been raining all night, and he knew his bromfiets wouldn't make it. Then Max and I stayed home all. stinking. day. Because it was STILL pouring and we figured it wouldn't be the safest thing in the world for us to go gallivanting around in. And Tuesday, Max and I took two other teachers and we all trotted off to the Doctor's office. Across town. Wow. Traffic was awful. Simply awful. Wow. It was an adventure. Let's just leave it at that.

And... I have run out of things to say... I'm not entirely awake yet...

I think I died and went to heaven

So after I posted that blog entry I had just finished (see below), I checked in on the Bakerella blog. Some of you may remember that that is the blog where I got the instructions for that cake I made for Valentine's Day. Anyway, she (the original Bakerella, I'm assuming) posted a link for a secret recipes blog. As in, recipes from famous and/or popular American eateries. (Can McDonalds be called an eatery??) There are recipes from everything from P.F. Changs to Sonic, from Chili's to Panera, etc. I am really impressed. Like, really.

Secret Recipe Blog

Now, please note that I did not I was "completely" impressed. Or "thoroughly" impressed. Mainly because I already have some recipes from some of these places that aren't listed on here. But, overall, this find has made me sooooooo happy. And it will make Ryan extremely happy, as well. As soon as he gets home from school.

Long time, no see!

Yes, it is my fault. I realize that. I've seriously slacked on this blogging thing. And that's after I promised myself that I would NOT become one of 'those' bloggers who started a blog never to post again. I didn't even post my menu on Monday. I was just. that. unmotivated. It doesn't help that SOMEONE has been seriously squawky, impossible to please, and all around rather unpleasant to be with. That same someone enjoys sinking her two sharp teeth into anything and everything she can get near her mouth, as well as losing her balance and bonking her noggin. On Monday, she slipped and hit the coffee table, resulting in a bump on her head, as well as biting her tongue and drawing blood. On Tuesday she slipped on the balcony, resulting in a bump on the opposite sit of her head, and biting her lip. Which drew blood. She's fallen and hit her head or some other part of her little personage, but it didn't leave a mark. So it doesn't count.

Oh, also on Monday she attempted to eat a cockroach. Before you worry about us living in a cockroach infested house, this is ONLY the THIRD cockroach I've seen in this house since we moved in back in June. Thankyouverymuch.

We broke out the sunglasses we had gotten her for Christmas, mainly because she was dead set on destroying either Ryan's or mine. So she was placated. For now.

The baby gate thing is working out quite well. We've also had to loop rubber bands around the handles on the kitchen cabinets. She figured out quite quickly how to pull them open and start pulling stuff out as fast as she can. This baby can do things at the speed of lightening, I'm not even kidding.

Okay, so just in case you were dying to know, and wouldn't be able to live another day without it, here is my sort-of menu plan for this week. You'll see why I said 'sort-of' momentarily.

Monday: we had Sloppy Joes, french fries, and a salad. (I think this was on the menu for last week, too, only that got rearranged.)
Tuesday: we had that Vegetable lasagna I talked about last week. Only there wasn't any Ricotta at the store, and my attempt to make something similar flopped. So I did my own thing. Sort of. It was still good, although incredibly flat. Hmmm.
Wednesday: Pork chops, rice, kasabands (if they're still good...). I did my own version of this recipe. I will let you know how it turns out.

Here is where it gets tricky. See, I bought potatoes to make mashed potatoes for tonight, but I don't think they'll go well with the Peking Pork, so I changed it to rice. But I still need to make mashed potatoes of those potatoes soon, or they'll go all yucky. So I will list a few other of my ideas, in no particular order.

-Beef tamale bake
-Fried rice
-Skillet lasagna
-Chicken marinated in that salad dressing I bought the other day; it's called Vidalia Onion vinaigrette with roasted red peppers. It's a creamy dressing, which is not what one would expect from the name.

And, just in case you were wondering, Italian night on Saturday went very well. Lots of yummy food, etc. Some friends of ours made the best lasagna I've had in a long time. Seriously. Right up there almost with my mom's. Which is one of my favorite meals. (Like something I would pick on on my birthday. And then I would ask for my favorite kind of cake. To see if anyone can remember what that happens to be. ) Max enjoyed the cinnamon twists I made. Enjoyed them immensely.