Risotto Tonight!

 Made Gordon Ramsay's Mushroom and Sage Risotto tonight for dinner.  It was the best risotto recipe I've ever tried!  Basically, it is risotto with sauteed mushrooms, crisp fried sage leaves in butter, white wine reduction, and lemon juice with some peel. To make a complete dinner out of it, I included a fried egg on top (fried in butter, of course!), and some roasted asparagus (toss with olive oil and sea salt.)  The perfect meal was rounded out with a glass of Chardonnay.  Don't want to know how many calories.  Sometimes you just have to throw caution to the wind.

Guilty Pleasures

   As Easter nears, I am tempted once again by one of my many guilty pleasures - the Cadbury Cream Egg.  ( I mistakenly found out how many calories one of these puppies has, and you don't want to know.)  These chocolates, to me, are basically mini versions of the "fruit and nut" filled eggs that I got in my basket as a kid.  They were about 3 pounds of whipped sugar with maybe some nuts, but definitely no fruit that I could recognize.  The whole shabang was wrapped in a casing of some sort of chocolate substitute and decorated with bitty flowers that you were tempted to eat, but later regretted it when one of your fillings came out.

    My second guilty pleasure is America's Next Top Model.  The show is all-out stupid.  I'll admit to it.  When all those girls scream and almost pass out when they see Tyra Banks for the first time, I come very close to turning off the TV out of sheer embarrasment., but, alas, I do not.  What follows in the subsequential weeks is not pretty, and I hide my head in shame at the very thought of it.  The only show that possibly reaches this level of humility is The Bachelor.  If one more drunk desperate 20-something takes off her thong underwear and gives it the Bachelor at the "meet-and-greet", I will have to ...have to..... well, even if I don't stop watching it, I'll have to at least write a letter about sub-standard programming!  So there!

   My third guilty pleasure is Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn songs.  It must be my genetic heritage - I come from a long line of rednecks that go way back to the Revolutionary Rednecks of yore. "Louisianna Woman, Mississippi Man"  is my personal favorite, but I love Conway's solo "Hello Darlin'" and Loretta's "You Ain't Woman Enough To Take My Man".  Makes me want to put on my flip-flops, pop a Yoo-Hoo, eat some "balona" sandwiches, and hang out at the gas station with my cousins.  (Don't ask, it's a real memory.)


   Well, now that I've bared my soul, I feel so cleansed!  I may not have given up anything for Lent, but I have rid my soul of some sins (at least, for the week-end.)  Happy Easter, y'all.

Damn, caught a cold when chaperoning my son's field trip.  I've tried Sudafed, Benadryl, Tylenol, you name it.  But, nothing has helped until..........Franzia.  Yes, it's what the doctors don't tell you.  Franzia box wine cures all.  (Especially the red kind, whatever that is.)  Two glasses and your throat doesn't hurt, your sinuses no longer throb, your headache has disappeared.   AND, so much cheaper than even the giant bottle of generic Tylenol PM!  Ahhhh, now I can sleep....Goodnight all.

What's on your grocery list?

Just came across this very funny book detailing found grocery lists.  It got me thinking about what I put on my grocery list.  Here are some observations:


1.  I always organize my list based on where the items are in the store.  Therefore, I must always go to same store no matter what, AND, if the store moves items around, I'm screwed.


2. The list changes depending upon who is doing the shopping.  If I send a list with my husband, I have to be very careful what to put on the list so as not to confuse him.  For example, if I need apples, I cannot just write "apples" because he'll get the wrong kind.  (You know, the kind that are already mushy by the time you buy them and no one wants to eat them, and so they just sit in bottom drawer until you smell something bad.)  I must write "Fuji apples in the organic section, but not the kind in the bag - just buy the individual ones", which takes up a lot of space and, who are we kidding, he'll just buy whatever damn apples he wants to anyway.  


3. I always abbreviate embarrassing items, just in case.  It's like wearing clean underwear just in case you get in a car accident.  The list I went out with on the first day home from the hospital after giving birth was a doosey!  (Just a note for all you pregnant ladies out there - Raley's doesn't sell the little doughnut pillows that you sit on.)


4. Write your list in bold dark definitive print.  This way you will not deviate from the list, nor be tempted to purchase impulse items, like the copy of The Star where Michelle Obama had a love child with an alien, or when People magazine did an expose on celebrity cellulite.  (That one did make my self esteem go up a notch, and therefore was maybe worth the guilt of deviating from the list. I mean really, we all knew it was all air-brushing anyway right?  Who could have a perfect ass?  Certainly not someone who has given birth, or someone who has no time to work out because she's busy cleaning up after everyone, or someone who has to do all the x*x~!!@  grocery shopping all the time!) 


5. Lastly, be very careful who you decide to shop with. It is preferable to shop alone.  If shopping with children, be firm.  Hold your ground.  It is you against them!  And we know who is stronger, right?  (And next time you come to a garage sale at my house, don't give me that look when I'm trying to unload a plethora Hot Wheels and Golden Books for 25 cents a bag.)

Dreaming of Pink

   I just have to accept the fact that I live in a testosterone-laden household.  With two boys (and no future plans for another child), I have tried to learn how to embrace Nerf guns, burping, toilet jokes, meat eating dinosaurs, Hot Wheels, and mud on my floor.  Nevertheless, when I see images of pink laden cribs, Barbie, princess playhouses, and crystal carriages with white mice I yearn for the little girl I'll never have.  I must say that when I was little, I wanted to be a girlie girl.  I loved ballet tutus, my tanning Skipper doll, makeup kits, and florescent fushia kitty barrettes.  Yet, my mother was never the super feminine type, and my father encouraged the (very) latent tomboy in me, so over the years I learned to somewhat repress my super poofy lace and satin girlie urges.  Now, as I approach 42, I find that I need that side of me to find expression once again.  I'm determined to find a space somewhere in my home that I can "girlify".  Who knows?  Maybe I'll drag out my old box of Madame Alexander dolls and install a display around my bedroom....I know my husband would be delighted.
(Photos:  Vintage Tiffani Barbie Print, Princess of Monaco Bedding, and Sophie's Magical Windmill Playhouse - all from Posh Tots, Carriage Cake by Jane Asher.)

Halloween decorating???

Yes, I know it is way too early to start thinking about Halloween but.......
"Halloween Night" by Moda Fabrics due to come out this July!

Signs of spring crushed by snow!

I just snapped this photo last week amid 60 degree weather on our front patio. Not only was I clearing dead leaves from around the emerging plants, I also broke apart the last chunk of solidified snow on the bricks of the patio. This week - snow!  I must resist those seed catalogs pouring out of my mailbox for a least another month.  Until then, I will continue to dream of fresh tangy tomatoes....

Party Cupcakes!

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Here's the cupcakes I made for my son's class birthday celebration.  I added gel paste coloring to make the frosting bright blue (food coloring drops just don't do it.)  I then put the frosting in a zip-lock bag, cut the tip and used it to ice the cupcakes.  The dinosaurs I bought by the bag at the grocery store.