LIST: The Magic 5

I promised that I'd share a recipe soon and I just spent a good chunk of time searching the recipes that I keep on my computer.  However, I couldn't find one that I wanted to share without a picture and others were recipes that are near and dear to the people that shared them with me and therefore, I don't dare share them.  I guess I could ask permission but that involves picking up the phone and with my low blood sugar right now, I just don't dare waste the energy.  I need it to type.  My last lame excuse is: I'm really hungry right now (tends to happen when I don't eat lunch...hence the low blood sugar) and I'm afraid that if I were to type up a recipe right now, I'd be likely to head upstairs once I was done, make said recipe, and then proceed to eat the entire thing in one sitting.

That being said, I'm going to provide you with a very short list of 5 most marvelous foods.  Five foods that make the world a better place and have the power of making other foods jealous and better than they are on their own...

The Magic 5

• Avocado:  Being a California girl, liking avocado more or less runs in my blood.  Make that LOVING avocado.  Because I do.  And that scary processed stuff at the market that they call guacamole doesn't count as avocado because it's not.  It's scary processed stuff.
• Ranch Dressing:  Ranch dressing is a staple in our fridge.  And I'm not referring to the bottled stuff...yuck.  We're talking about the dressing that is made using a Hidden Valley Ranch packet, mayonnaise, and either milk or buttermilk (depending on the packet being used - we prefer the latter).  I've recently had a couple of people tell me that my ranch is the best.  Well, it's not my ranch, people.  It's Hidden Valley's.  And you're right - it really is the best.  The only thing is I make it with a bit of extra mayonnaise and a bit less milk/buttermilk than it calls for so that it's thicker.  That's all.
• Chocolate: No explanation or description needed here.
• Bacon:  I'm not normally a huge bacon fan.  No, really!  It's way too salty and I've never been a huge salt lover.  However, a while back we discovered Kirkland's low sodium bacon.  Mmmmmm.  Even my salt loving hubby prefers it.  And I don't need to drink a gallon of water after each slice.
• Cheese:  Yes, I mean cheese in general.  Parmesan.  Cheddar.  Monterey Jack.  And so forth and so on.  Like chocolate, cheese falls into the category or not needing much of an explanation.  It's beautiful and that's that.

Now that you have the list of the 5 magic ingredients, this is what you do.  Name a food.  Any food.  Then look over the list and you're pretty much sure to find that at least one of the magic 5 will make that food even better.  Let's have a few examples, shall we?...

Apples.  I love apples, especially nice, cold crisp ones.  But even better than a plain old apple slice?  An apple slice with sharp cheddar cheese on top.  Mmmmmm!  More a fan of the sweet classic of caramel apples?  Fine...add chocolate.  Double mmmmmm!

Hamburgers.  I have a very deep and meaningful love for home grilled hamburgers.  But I have a hard time eating one without some nice fresh slices of avocado on top and a slice or two of cheddar.  Tasty, tasty, tasty.  Bacon and ranch wouldn't hurt either.

Strawberries.  Yummy...one of my favorite fruits.  Made even more delicious by my dear friend chocolate (any kind will do).

Finally, turkey.  It's super great all by itself.  But what if you eat it dipped in ranch?  Better.  In a salad with avocado and cheese?  Better still.  On a sandwich with bacon, cheese, and avocado, dipped in ranch?  Best of all!

Now, I have to share one last thing.  In the middle of doing this post, my lack of energy got to be a little too much and I ran upstairs to have a "snack".  I started with a healthy serving of chocolate chips and then moved onto carrots (with ranch!).  Then cheddar cheese.  With ranch.  I polished it off with sourdough toast with butter and honey and then a few more chocolate chips.  I feel much better now.  And did you notice how skillfully I worked 3 of the Magic 5 into my late lunch/snack?  Brilliant.  But that's beside the point...

Have you ever had good cheddar cheese (i.e. Tillamook sharp or cheddar) dipped in homemade Hidden Valley Ranch?  One word: GLORIOUS.  If you haven't tried it, give it a go.  You and your thighs can thank me later.

P.S.  Will be making homemade Macaroni & Cheese in the next couple of days.  After the weight-increasing taste test, I'll post the recipe (with pictures) if it's a winner.  Which I'm sure it will be...it's from Tillamook.

LIST: Busy Little Bee

Last month I posted a whopping 8 times...that's one seriously insane record when compared to the previous months.  June hasn't been quite so lucky.  My most recent post was the 6th of this month, and that was only because I scheduled the post sometime the week before.   I know.  I can be a sneaky little devil sometimes.

June 3rd was the last day of school.  Hallelujah!  Happy day!  No getting up early and getting the kids ready for the day unless I want to!  And believe me, that's seldom the case...

The next day, I got a call from my sister telling me that her mother-in-law had passed away and that they were coming in town within a couple of days for the funeral.  She was originally going to drive out with her kiddies and stay with us in later July but considering the circumstances, they decided to just stay here for an extra week+ after the funeral.  They arrived Monday the 6th and stayed until last Friday.  We had a marvy time (more on that later) and while I've fully intended to get blogging since they left, I've been very busy each day.  I'm even going to give you a glorious list of everything I've been doing over the past week or so.

MY BUSY BEE LIST

• sleeping in or just laying in bed in the morning
• making beds
• yelling at my kids
• doing my daughter's hair in a simple pony tail
• pretending that I didn't notice the 3 baskets of laundry that needed folding
• making lunch for my kids
• going to the grocery store or Costco
• sitting around doing nothing
• taking my daily shower
• taking my kids to the zoo (once)
• making dinner
• reading the news online
• avoiding moving...it's getting hot and I don't want to be sweaty
• yelling at my kids
• putting my kids to bed
• staying up way too late while sitting around AND doing nothing (epiphany: I ought to write a book on multi-tasking!)
• eating ice cream
• sleeping

 Very, very busy indeed.  Just recalling all that I've done has left me worn out!  However, in spite of my well earned exhaustion, I've decided that I'm going to take a break from my busy life and get a bunch of posts up before the end of the month.  And to my girlfriend Jen: as promised, I'll even get a recipe or two up so you can drool until you're out of that super stylish cast and able to cook again.

Out With The Broken & In With The New

What's wrong with this picture?

a) dirty spots on the wall that won't wash off

b) whoever painted didn't get the bottom of the pipes

c) no washing machine

d) all of the above

A couple of weeks ago I was doing my favorite chore of laundry when the washing machine started making horrendous noises.  I checked it out and found that the agitator wasn't working.  Very agitating.  We had a repairman come out to diagnose the problem and ours jaws just about hit the floor when he said that the transmission was shot and that it would cost $577 + change to fix it. OUCH!  We didn't hesitate for a milli-second...no repair needed.  We'd be buying a new washer.

After an evening of research, I set out the next day to find a new washer.  After stops at four different stores, mission accomplished.  I was initially 99% sold on one at Lowe's but at my final stop, I found a slightly better machine on sale for $50 less.  Making the deal even sweeter were the facts that they were waiving sales tax if you used your store account (which we already had) and we could pick up the washer that afternoon instead of waiting a day or more for delivery.  In the end, I got a better washer and saved over $100 compared to the one at Lowe's.  The final cost was less than $13.00 more than the cost to repair the old one.

When Max got home that afternoon he took our broken washer away in his dad's truck and came home with a shiny new washer (which I managed to scratch the front of within 48 hours) to take its place.

I love, love, LOVE my new washer.  I'm sure that no one wants to read all the details about it so I'll just say this: bigger capacity + high efficiency ($$$ saver) + cleaner clothes = one happy chick.

Oh - and we musn't forget the very best part of getting a new appliance...the box!

It's been three weeks since I got my new toy and the kids are still using the box.  They play house in it.  Hudson plays his DS in it.  Claire takes her animals inside.  It's the perfect toy.  As usual, the adult is excited about what came in the box and the kids just want to play with the packaging!

Rewind: Hudson's 7th Birthday

As mentioned in a previous post, Hudson celebrated his 7th birthday back on May 7th.  That evening we had a family party for him.  I spent way too much time that afternoon making cupcakes in ice cream cones.  I not only baked the cake into the cones but also topped each with a smaller cupcake to make a nice "scoop" on to.  Frosting them was somewhat of a nightmare, even once I had a pretty good system down.  Now don't get me wrong, my boy is totally worth it and I think the cupcakes turned out really well.  I just don't think I'll be doing them again anytime soon.  I also made a Texas sheet cake (our fave - recipe here) in preparation for how many people we were going to have.

Cupcakes and cake galore (only a fraction of the cupcakes are shown)...the lower left pic is what happens when you accidentally bump the table in the middle of taking pictures.

Party time rolled around and we ended up with a total of 10 people here (that number includes our family of 4).  We were expecting 18 more people to come but last minute circumstances made it so that three families couldn't come.  It was a bit of a bummer but we did our best to play it down and Hudson was still happy to see those who did come and enjoyed his little party.

As for the copious amounts of dessert that we had in our possession, the cupcakes were a hit with the kids and adults.  The sheet cake was good as always but hardly a dent was made.  The only hitch with any of it (besides insane amounts of leftovers) was that the blue frosting proved to be a real mess-maker.  Not that there's any surprise there.

Messy kids (though we were smart enough to give the little one an un-frosted cupcake)...my nephew actually licked his bowl clean!

Happy Birthday to my best boy!

Rewind: Hudson's Non-Birthday Play Date

I can't believe I'm still trying to catch up!...

The day before Hudson's birthday, he had a few friends over for a play date.  We had a family party planned for the big day so this was a kind of a non-party way of getting together with friends for his birthday (or un-birthday?).  It was a great little group: Hudson and friends Seth, Amanda, and Acea (pronounced ace-uh).  One other girl was supposed to come but she was a no-show. 

(left to right: Seth, Acea, Hudson, and Amanada)

The kids had a great time, mostly playing some sort of make-believe game involving good and bad guys, lots of running, people getting kidnapped or trapped and Nerf guns.

I'm not the best about arranging play dates for either of my kids but that afternoon was a reminder to me that I need to do so far more often.  The kids are always thrilled to have someone over (or go to someone else's place) and they're usually happily occupied for quite some time and this makes for a happy mom.  Note to self: arrange another one ASAP!