Ugh

13 Things I Hate About the Flu

1. The chills
2. The fever
3. The aches
4. The having to sprint to the....
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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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More food

This is really turning into a food blog. Oh well. I like food.

A family member gave me this recipe and I am just about to go off and make it. I'll update later how it turned out.

1 pound beef boneless top loin or sirloin

1/4 cup soy sauce

3 TBS sugar

2 TBS sesame or vegetable oil

1/4 tsp pepper

3 green onions finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

Trim fat from beef: cut beef diagonally across grain into 1/8-inch slices. Mix remaining ingredients; stir in beef until well coated. Cover and refrigerate 20 minutes

Drain beef: stir-fry in 10-inch skillet or wok over medium heat until light brown, 2 to 3 minutes. Serve beef with hot cooked rice, if desired. (Why one would serve it with cold uncooked rice is beyond me!)

Sounds yummy. We'll have it with rice and some kind of green vegetable.

UPDATE: This turned out to be really good. I did only 2 tbsp of sugar and 1/2 tsp of powdered ginger. I think next time I might add a teeny bit of red pepper flakes - just for a little kick. It's a keeper for sure.

Grossness alert - read no further if you have a touchy tummy.

And because it's so appetizing to talk about poo at the same time as food - here's a question I pose to you all. Please leave suggestions.

My teen son is slip-shod about cleaning the cat boxes (one of his VERY FEW chores). I came home today to a large pile of cat poo in MY BEDROOM - not HIS bedroom...MINE. Is it reasonable to move the cat boxes in his room until he learns to keep them clean??? Is this over-reacting? I'm also contemplating other options - slap a knot on the kid's head with the poo scooper or shoot the cat.

Rambling

I'm not sure what to write about today. I've got a bunch of stuff swirling, but none of it seems all that blog-worthy.

Still not smoking - check.
Knee getting better - check.
News not all that interesting - check.
Still stuffed from weekend cooking - check.

I'll leave you with a funny picture.

"Mommy, WTH is he doing???"

Braden's Meme

Hi this is Noah. I've hijacked my mommy's blog to participate in Braden's meme. Braden says to show how I dominate my parents. This is an old picture of me. I find that it's useful to frighten your parents once in a while and show them the very bad road you MIGHT go down - this scares them into letting you do the only kinda bad things like watch too much TV, eat a lot of candy, and stay up late!

Weekly Winners 01.20.08

Idea, organization, and all-around coolness the brainchild of Lotus.

My goal this week was to get some outside shots. But since it's about minus 20 degrees with the windchill factor, those pictures will have to wait. I try to avoid outside when it's colder than the inside of my freezer.

Wall of words.

This is one kid who is damn serious about fire safety.

Dylan's guitar.

This is a part to one of Noah's toys. Try to imagine how disturbing this is to find on your rug when you've never seen it before. 10,000 bonus points to whoever knows what this goes to. It's nothing obscure or obscene - in fact it's very popular.

Comfort Food Weekend

I decided to spend today cooking and make big batches of food we could dip into all weekend long. I opted for "comfort food" because the high temperature here today is going to be ONE DEGREE. One. Only one. ONE. I NEED comfort! Yesterday I posted my favorite lasagna recipe. As soon as I get done with this post, I'm going to start that going. But this morning I played around with a recipe from Emeril and some tips from my mom and made an amazing pot of broccoli cheese soup. I may wind up having to cook again because the soup recipe didn't make very much - and we gobbled it like hogs. Here it is:

5 tbsp butter, separated
1 cup shallots, minced
1 cup celery, minced
salt and pepper to taste
1 pinch nutmeg
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium carrot, grated
3 tbsp flour
3-4 cups chicken broth
2 cups fresh broccoli, chopped and microwaved with a splash of water for 3 minutes
1 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 cups shredded sharp cheddar

In a medium pot, melt 3 tbsp butter over medium-high heat. Add the shallots, celery, salt, pepper, and nutmeg and cook, stirring, until soft - about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring until fragrant, for 20 seconds. Add the flour and cook, stirring until the mixture is well blended and smells fragrant - about 2 minutes. Slowly add the chicken stock, whisking constantly, and bring to a boil. Add the grated carrot. Reduce the heat and simmer until thickened about 5 minutes. Add the broccoli and cook, stirring, until tender, for 10 minutes.

Remove the pot from the heat and puree with a hand-held immersion blender. Alternatively, in batches, puree in a blender or food processor and return to the pot.

Add the cream and bring to a bare simmer to heat through. Add the cheese and cook over low heat, stirring, until melted. Add the remaining 2 tbsp cold butter, stirring to blend.

We served this with Parmesan Biscuit Mix from Tastefully Simple. Heaven. After my food coma nap, it's time to get the lasagna going!

I'm contemplating throwing my grand diet plans out the window and mixing up a batch of fudge. I haven't decided on that yet. :)

Haiku-ed Food

Yet another cool idea stolen from Lotus

Lasagna my love
Why so many carbs and fat?
Who cares - you're too good!

The following is a recipe I found at AllRecipes.com. My changes are in italics. It's good the original way, but we just changed things up for our taste. This is a lot of work, but fun if you like to cook and well worth it no matter what.

• 1 pound sweet Italian sausage (whatever - hot, mild, sweet)
  
• 3/4 pound lean ground beef (or a pound or all beef or all sausage - whatever)
  
• 1/2 cup minced onion (I prefer to use 2 or 3 shallots)
  
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed (maybe 3 - we LOVE garlic)
  
• 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
• 2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
• 2 (6.5 ounce) cans canned tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup water (we use red wine here)
  
• 2 tablespoons white sugar (this is to cut the acidity of the tomatoes - you can substitute shredded carrots, but at this point why bother!)
  
• 1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil leaves (absolutely use fresh basil instead of dried....it makes all the difference in the world to this dish...I use about 3 tbsp fresh minced...it's night and day how much better fresh is here)
  
• 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds (some people don't like these and they are usually included in italian sausage...I use them, but you could eliminate them I guess.)
  
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning (to taste)
  
• 1 tablespoon salt (to taste)
  
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper (to taste)
  
• 4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley (unlike the basil, I think you can use dried here - or eliminate completely....you can't really taste it with everything else in the dish)
  
• 12 lasagna noodles (I try to get the oven-ready kind to avoid part of Step 2 below)
  
• 16 ounces ricotta cheese
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 pound mozzarella cheese, sliced (we use WAY WAY WAY more)
  
• 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (we use WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY more)
• we also add: Romano cheese
• minced Portobella mushrooms - maybe 1/4 to 1/3 cup
• about half a package of baby spinach minced....this and the mushrooms are added in Step 1
  

1. In a Dutch oven, cook sausage, ground beef, onion, and garlic over medium heat until well browned. Stir in crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce, and water. Season with sugar, basil, fennel seeds, Italian seasoning, 1 tablespoon salt, pepper, and 2 tablespoons parsley. Simmer, covered, for about 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally. (Simmering time is important - the longer it simmers, the more the flavors marry. Do AT LEAST an hour. Some of the reviewers at the original site make the sauce the night before and let it sit in the refrigerator over night to blend - not a bad idea.)
   
2. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook lasagna noodles in boiling water for 8 to 10 minutes. Drain noodles, and rinse with cold water. Either use the oven-read kind or just put the regular kind in a pan of cold water before you start anything else. By the time you're ready for the noodles they will be soft enough to work. In a mixing bowl, combine ricotta cheese with egg, remaining parsley, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.
3. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
4. To assemble, spread 1 1/2 cups of meat sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Arrange 6 noodles lengthwise over meat sauce. Spread with one half of the ricotta cheese mixture. Top with a third of mozzarella cheese slices. Spoon 1 1/2 cups meat sauce over mozzarella, and sprinkle with 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Repeat layers, and top with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. Cover with foil: to prevent sticking, either spray foil with cooking spray, or make sure the foil does not touch the cheese. (Whatever - just make reasonable layers using the sauce and the cheeses - it doesn't have to follow this exactly. I usually add one last layer of mozzarella about 15 minutes before it's done, because you can always use one more layer of cheese!)
   
5. Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes. Remove foil, and bake an additional 25 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes before serving.

This really is a fantastic recipe. Experiment with adding other meats, vegetables, and cheeses to your tastes. But I really cannot stress enough to use fresh basil (if you can get it).

Pure evil

I was going to do thirteen things about my cats, but I decided to keep annoying Kat instead. I give you the thirteen worst songs/jingles to have stuck in your head (in no particular order):

1. "I love you, you love me, we're a happy family....." Barney Theme Song
2. The Macarena
3. Mmmm Bop
4. "Clap On (clap clap) Clap Off (clap clap) Clap On Clap Off. THE CLAPPER!!"
5. "Dibee dobee de dooo....Three's Company too!!"
6. Anything from a hair band, especially "Here I Go Again On My Own"
7. Any Christmas song either a month before or a month after the actual holiday (especially "Gramma Got Run Over by a Reindeer").
8. The Hustle - "do do do do do do do do do do do do....do the hustle!" Really any song that involves a long whistling section, see "Walk Like an Egyptian" and others.
   
9. Patrick Swayze singing that annoying song in a horrible British accent to Whoopi Goldberg in "Ghost" to get her to talk to him. "I'm Henry the VIII I am I am....." something. Really anything sung by Patrick Swayze under any circumstance.
   
10. That horrible Spice Girls song "Tell you what I want what I really really want...." Shudder.
11. "Whoooooooooooooooooooooooo lives in a pineapple under the sea? SPONGE BOB SQUARE PANTS! Absorbent and yellow and porous is he. SPONGE BOB SQUARE PANTS! If nautical nonsense be something you wish, then drop on the deck and flop like a fish. SPONGE BOG SQUARE PANTS. SPONGE BOG SQUARE PANTS. SPONGE BOG SQUARE PANTS. SPONGE BOG SQUARE PANTS."
12. Getting just PART of a song repeating endlessly in your head. I love Johnny Cash, but one day I had JUST the chorus of "Ring of Fire" going through my head over and over and I almost stuck a pen in my eye just for some variation. Jeff almost went home sick from work one day because he had just the "Oh Baby Baby" part of "Hit Me Baby One More Time" by Britney Spears going through his head.
13. The time-is-running-out-so-write-down-your-answer thingy from Jeopardy. This is especially annoying to hear when someone thinks they are being really cute and hums this to you while you try to do something. This may be grounds for justifiable gross bodily injury.
    

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Stealing ideas again

Julie mentioned that she has a ton of nicknames for her kids. We do that too - in fact, so does most of my extended family....I'm not sure why. Anyway, here are the boys' nicknames (they also both get called "You With The Face" when I'm distracted, upset, or in a hurry):

Dylan -

• Fred (this comes from "Are you ready, Freddy?")
• Toon
• Tuner
• Bud
• Boon
• T
• Dynan (the way Noah used to say his name)
• Buther (the way Noah says brother)

Noah -

• Duck or Duck Butt
• The Bombie Kid
• Faces
• Fusses
• Loves & Small
• Ohwn-ces (this one is hard to spell)
• Bubby
• Smalls
• Shorts or Shorty

Now that I see this list I'm kind of surprised that they even acknowledge their real names. Here are the newborn/hospital shots for each of them - Him With The Face on the left, The Other Him With The Face on the right ;)

Random photos

I wrote like a nut yesterday, so today will be random old photos day. (Sorry Julie - I didn't have enough to keep the tree theme going!)

This is a picture that Dylan took of a double rainbow reflected in the river. This is also the view from my parents house. It's so beautiful up there.

This is a picture I took at the St. Louis Botanical Gardens. If you ever get to St. Louis, pay a visit to the Botanical Gardens - everything there is so beautiful. And like most tourist attractions in St. Louis, it's very cheap to visit.

Dylan was shooting hoops and....missed! But it made for a great picture.

The scariest slide in the world. Just kidding! Underneath the St. Louis Arch.

We've been suffering a drought in South Dakota for years. Here's proof. About 20 or so years ago, my dad built a dock right below our house. His dock, which sometimes used to be UNDER the water, is now hundreds of feet from the waterline. You can't even really see the dock in this picture, but the sad thing is still there. Dylan learned in school that central South Dakota has been under drought conditions for so long that this area can be properly classified as a desert.

Complete Geek

Ok. This will be the last "Lost" post....for a while. I stumbled upon this site - Lost is a Game - and have found the theory pretty interesting. The guy argues that really this is all a big, elaborate two player game of some sort. Interesting, but I don't buy it. Mostly I really just enjoy the show. The acting is great, the production values are as good as a movie, the storyline is compelling, etc. I haven't given too much thought to "what it all means" or "what's the big explanation." That'll work itself out. We'll get there.

But after reading through the Lost is a Game site, I decided to do some thinking about the what it IS all about. Here comes my theory and I'm sticking to it. When the show is all over and I am proved fantastically right, I will direct you all to this post. If I'm wrong, I'll go back into Blogger dashboard and delete it. So here we go:

There are MANY references to Stephen King and his works in Lost. And apparently he's a big fan of the show. That's neither here nor there. Anyway, I am also a big Stephen King fan as well as a Lost fan. One recurring theme in many of King's works is the idea of many different universes all existing simultaneously, but slightly differently. So maybe in a parallel world I'm carving this blog post into stone or using a pen made out of a quill instead of typing on a computer. The whole Dark Tower series deals with different worlds as do the books The Talisman, Black House, Insomnia, and Hearts In Atlantis (just to name a few). For some reason King thinks this idea is compelling. He also writes about "thin" places in the world - places where it's easier to slip from world to world.

So - my theory is that the plane slipped through some kind of time rip or thin spot and all these people are existing in a parallel universe. Why or do they get back or whatever - I don't know...the story will answer those questions. This theory certainly explains how the people on the island are told by a woman that parachutes in that their plane was found and everyone was dead. In that universe they ARE dead, in this one they're not. It also explains how no one can find the island - because it doesn't really exist in our world. The discussion with my husband that prompted all this was much longer - I don't want to go into the whole thing. My theory doesn't answer everything, but I think it's way better than it's all a game, it's all a dream, it's just purgatory, etc. Here's one last point. The two main male characters on Lost are "Jack" and "Sawyer." One of (if not THE) the earliest King books that deals with different worlds and traveling through them is The Talisman. The hero of The Talisman (and, later, of Black House) is a boy named Jack Sawyer.

*cue eerie coincidence music*

Weekly Winners 01.13.08

Idea, organization, and all-around coolness the brainchild of Lotus.

As some of you have read, I just got a new digital camera. I'm still playing with it and have not figured out all the settings. One thing that seems to be really hard to do is take a close-up picture of something. (The last picture in this set is kind of blurry for that reason). I guess it will just take more practice.

Noah was walking around with his gloves on his feet. When I asked him why he told me, "I want to be like Curious George." I thought this was pretty clever.




This is my face in one of those things. I look like Mick Jagger with sunglasses on. Oh well. Start me up.

Being an older brother is back-breaking work.

Does any toy for a child need to be able to bend this way???

Deep Thoughts

"The true unity of Mobius transformations is revealed by moving into the next dimension."



I'm sure this is all very important in a mathy way, but I like it because it's kinda trippy. Dude.

Zzzzzleepy

Yet another cool idea stolen from Lotus

The work week is done.
It's time for some fun - though I'd
rather snooze away.

Let's Get Physical

Are you going to have that song in your head all day now? Sorry. (She said, evilly.)

***Interruption...I'm watching Paula Dean....I don't know what she's making but I heard her say "mix together two sticks of butter and 2 1/2 cups of powdered sugar"...LOL....Calories and Fat Be Damned!!!....I love her***

OK, back to the topic. My Thursday Thirteen is going to about what I've learned since pinwheeling down my stairs. I choose this topic in honor of my physical therapy appointment today. Here we go:

1. Slow down. None of this would have happened if I could have just chilled out a little bit.

2. I can really shriek.

3. ER doctors have no sense of humor. I'm all whacked out on Vicodin and the guy is looking at my leg. I say, "Wow I would have shaved my legs if I knew this was going to happen." I thought it was a really good sign that I could make a funny in the midst of my crisis, but he just got this indignant look on his face and said, "We don't really care about that." Duh you moron - it was an attempt at levity....join in. Although this may be what prompted him to ask if I had been drinking. ahahaha. I wasn't, by the way.

4. A grown man, teenage boy, and 4 year old boy are totally goofy in their attempts to care for the injured and run the household. Goofy, but really sweet.

5. I can really act like an idiot if given enough Vicodin. My kids have never seen me even slightly tipsy and Dylan thought it was beyond funny how goofy I was acting. I may never live this down.

6. I really, truly hate crutches.

7. Telling people over and over that tripped over your own clumsy self and fell down the steps really gets tiresome. Next time I'll tell a different story to everyone who asks.

8. All the people at my work are really nice and accommodating. This could have been a nightmare with a different group of co-workers, but everyone was really great.

9. I really have no idea how the human body works. Learning about the parts of the knee was really interesting....although I wish I had come by my knowledge in a totally different way.

10. No one believes me when I say that anesthesia makes me REALLY REALLY REALLY sick. Every surgery I've ever had has been made 10 times worse by the entire evening of sick that follows.

11. Even at my great age, my mom will still wade in with fists swinging to get her baby girl what she wants. (I was done getting sick and wanted some broth - they said no - my mom did her mom magic - I got my broth.)

12. Physical therapy is really hard. I want to hate the therapist, but I do believe all these things will help me get back to normal (ha) as soon as possible. But it is hard.

13. I have more respect than you can imagine for people who have to live with physical disabilities everyday. There is an end to this for me, but some people live this every day. Their courage and perseverance must be astonishing.

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Lost

Really. I've been totally sucked back into "Lost." I'm not a huge TV watcher, but I LOVE this show. I got the first season on DVD for Christmas. I already watched it and all the extra stuff and am now working my way through Season 2 (rented). I REALLY REALLY REALLY want to buy the next seasons, but can't seem to justify doing it. (Although I DID save all that money my quitting smoking....hmmmmm.....*sigh*...nah.)

Anyway, now that I've bored all the INSANE non-"Lost" fans to tears, let me put up a photo for you. I really like the idea of Weekly Winners, but those are new photos. I think one of the best things about photos are to re-visit old ones just for fun. I'll be putting up old photos with a short blurb or caption from time to time (mostly likely when I can't think of anything else to write about). Enjoy.

"It looks so bad, but it tastes so good."

Quick lunch bloggin'

WINTER TORNADOES. Oh my dear good grief. I thought I was SAFE from November to March. Apparently freakin' NOT. (P.S. I want no "but I like storms" comments....the hell with you...you're crazy...no one likes these....hush up...;)

Does one count? Four health changes to let you live long enough to lose all your teeth and wear a diaper. Yippee.

Boy Scout Thwarts Assassination Attempt.

**Note to self: sign Noah up for Boy Scouts and parade him around important people**

Yeah - the St. Louis area just had WAAAAY too much swearing. That's why I left. WTH??? Can't smoke in bars, can't swear in bars, pretty soon you won't be able to DRINK in bars. You'll just have to sit there with a leaf of lettuce, a non-fiction book on the evils of eating animal flesh, and a glass of water. Woohoo. That's LIVIN'!!!!!

Link to a link

Maggie posted a recipe for and picture of Dirty Shrimp in Butter-Beer Sauce. I made this tonight. I'm going to give it 3 1/2 out of 5 stars, only because it was a little too hot for me, WAY too hot for Jeff, and Dylan thought it was perfect (Noah got Spaghetti-O's after I took one bite.) I like spicy hot food, but this was almost too much for me. 1 tsp of cayenne pepper is about 3/4 tsp too much for my wimpy taste buds. I did think the recipe was tasty and I will make it again - I think I will just tone down the heat. Dylan can always add more to his. Thanks for the recipe Maggie. We're making the chicken thing tomorrow. (I'm stalking her....shhhhhh.)

I posted a chicken recipe and promised to put up a picture with Weekly Winners. I didn't forget to do it, I just need more practice with the new camera. I think the flash setting was wrong because the picture looked as if we used some sort of nuclear cooking method. I didn't want to turn anyone off from it. Chernobyl Chicken with Three Mile Island Salad just doesn't seem all that good. But it really was. I swear.

Brilliant

My husband is creating his own blog on here and was asking me how to add a links list. In my own special genius way I managed to delete my own list in process of showing him how to do it.

BRILLIANT.

I put back up what I could remember, but if you want to be added leave me a comment and I will do it. (Or else I'll manage to delete my entire blog, put out an eye, blow up the microwave, and shave a cat.....something.)

Weekly Winners 01.06.08

Idea, organization, and all-around coolness the brainchild of Lotus.

Reason 416,348,874 why I'm glad I'm not a guy: hairy legs.

This thing was not all droopy like this when we bought it. The fronds stood up more and didn't bend over. It takes a special kind of evil to kill a fake plant.



Cat 'n' mouse.



Maybe he's too young for Merlot.

(Pssst....it's JUICE for all of you who were getting ready to call DCFS.)



I hate toddlers.



I hate teenagers.



And they're mouthy too.




See you next week.