Tiger Woods ain't got nothing on zj - and no, I'm not talking about THAT. Vacation, day two.

This blog is on vacation until further notice.

But don't worry - the stories are piling up.  

It may take a few days of recovery and healing before I can talk about the 14 hour car trip here (Mama, are we at the beach yet?).  

Hey, is my crazy showing?

The J family is off for vacation soon.

Should be an exciting event.  In addition to me, RJ, zj and cj, RJ's brother, his brother's wife, and their kid are coming, too.  I can't wait to sit on the beach, sip fruity drinks, and... sleep.

Yesterday was my first official day of vacation, and I sent my kids to the sitter so that I could obsess the entire day about leaving my house for a week start packing.

I also had to do the big "pre-vacation" housecleaning.

You know you know what I'm talking about.

You know, the one where you clean your toilets and wash the curtains in your bedroom that haven't been washed in six years a while and clean the dust bunnies out from under the couch and clean out the refrigerator and dust INSIDE the china cabinet and vacuum under the couch cushions because oh dear God what if something were to happen to us while we were gone and someone else had to come into our house to look for something nice that we could be buried in and they saw that I was a bad housekeeper and never mind DEAD, I don't want to be JUDGED.  Or something like that.

Superhero Tuesday.

Poor Psylocke.

Apparently the glue didn't hold, and now she's destined for the trash can.

Boneless Chicken Breast - a Three Meal Meat.

So...  I've been a slacker on the recipes lately, but I have been thinking a lot more about ways to cut the grocery bill.  So anyway, a pack of chicken breast costs about $6 on sale, and I stretched it into three meals.  Granted, this was just to feed me, RJ and zj a little, so if you're cooking for a family of four or more, you may need to double this.  Still, not too shabby, and since RJ does not eat leftovers much, these meals were different enough that they didn't resemble what we had the night before.  It's like food allusion, sorta.  Here goes.


WHAT YOU START WITH:

One pack boneless, skinless chicken breast. Dice into smallish bite sized pieces.  Saute in olive oil over medium low heat until juices run clear.  Add a little bit of salt and pepper, divide it into thirds, and you're ready.


DAY ONE:

Chicken Pot Pie a la Vilas.

My friend Natalie's Mama, Vilas, gave me this recipe years ago, and it has never failed me.  It's easy, and good, and easy.

WHAT YOU NEED:
1/3 of the sauteed chicken breast
1 2 pack of refrigerated pie crust
1 large can Veg-All Homestyle (drained)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can chicken broth
Whatever herbs you like.  I had some fresh parsley on hand, so I used that.  Poultry seasoning works well, or dried Italian seasoning.  Whatever you have.  Really.  It's ok.  Live a little.

WHAT YOU DO:
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  Spread one of the two crusts out in a shallow-ish baking dish.  In a bowl, mix the chicken,  the Veg-All, the soup, the broth, and the herbs.  Spoon it into the crust and top with the other crust.  Cut a couple slits in the top crust to vent, and bake it for 25 minutes or so, until the crust is golden and the juices are bubbly.

If the juicy part flows under the bottom crust or over the top one, don't worry.  It will still taste good.  Beautiful food sometimes tastes bad...



DAY TWO:

Barbecue Chicken Pizza

WHAT YOU NEED:

1/3 of the sauteed chicken breast

1 prepared pizza crust, like Boboli

1 small red onion, chopped

Some mushrooms, if you love 'em

1 cup shredded Italian cheese

1/2 cup of your favorite barbecue sauce.  I personally like KC Masterpiece, but I won't really care if you use something else.
Olive oil


WHAT YOU DO:
Saute the onions and mushrooms is a smidge of olive oil.  Chop/shred the chicken into little itty bitty tiny pieces (or not, if you want it chunky), and add it to the onion mixture.  Top the crust with the barbecue sauce, the onion/mushroom/chicken mixture, and then top that with the cheese.  Bake according to the instructions on the crust package.  Yummy.




DAY THREE:

Chicken Pasta Stuff

Cut me a little slack here guys.  I just make it.  You can call it anything you like.

WHAT YOU NEED:

The rest of the sauteed chicken breast

About a cup of mushrooms - I used Portabellos because I had some, but the canned kind would work just fine.

A pat of butter

Some olive oil

A clove of garlic, minced

About 3/4 cup milk or cream

Salt & Pepper

A couple shakes of Parmesan cheese.  I swear by the kind in the green can.  Take that, Rachel Ray.

Some sort of pasta or whatever.  I used egg noodles - about half a bag.

Cook the noodles/pasta according to directions.

In a saucepan, saute the mushrooms, chicken, and garlic in the butter and oil.  When the mushrooms look toasty, add salt and pepper and then add the milk and let it simmer for a while - 10 minutes or so - on low.  When the mild is reduced and thickened, add the Parmesan cheese.  Don't cook it too long after adding the cheese or it will clump up and look icky.  Trust me here - I speak from experience.

Pour the whole mess over the noodles and eat up!  The longer you let this one sit around before eating, the better it tastes.

T-Minus 3 Days.

Did I mention that we're going on vacation soon?

Cause we are.

And with working every day between now and then, and packing, and all that jazz, I am feeling decidedly uninspired with the blogging bit.

Actually, I am quite inspired.  Just lazy busy.

Here are some upcoming posts at 154 Hidden Court - stay tuned.

• All Work Is Moving Stuff From One Place To Another
• My Inner Farm Girl
• What's A Mop?
• An_Loc
• That Old Guy Is Up To Something
• Natalie
• De-Lurk
• If I Had a Million Dollars
• I Can Check My Facebook from My NOOK
• A New Three Meal Meat Recipe
• And Many More!!!

Jealous???

We're leaving for this place on Wednesday.

Current temps are in the 70's, sunny with a slight breeze.

Jealous?

Sock Monsters - They're Real!!!

I'm not known as the best housekeeper around.  To my credit, I love to cook, but housekeeping just... alludes me somehow.  However, I do what is necessary most of the time, and manage to keep the house from being a total and utter pit from hell.

But laundry, laundry and I do not get along.

At all.

I'm no super stain fighter.

I have no super-de-duper hints or tricks that make wrinkles disappear as if by magic.

Oh, and I'm infested with sock monsters.

And they're breeding.

For real, yo.

Ok, I'm sure you don't believe me here, but let's do some math, shall we?

There are four members of the J household.  Each J family member wears approximately one pair of socks per day.  That's two socks in a pair, times four people, times seven days in a week, times four weeks in a month.  Approximately, of course.

That's around 224 socks that should pass through my washer and dryer per month, right?

If you assume a loss rate of approximately 5%, that means that in any given month, you could assume a loss of 11.2 socks.

Approximately, of course.

So where the hell did all these come from???

These photos depict actual unmatched socks found at 154 HIdden Court.

Sock Monsters - They're Real.

Good handwashing skills are important. Nick Jr. told me so.

A Cold Snap.

Around the first part of the year, the J family made some major financial changes.  This was designed to be a means to an end - one both RJ and I deemed necessary.

One of the changes that we made was that RJ is now in charge of paying the bills. 

This was clearly a departure for both of us.

Now don't go getting any crazy ideas.  It's not like I spent the baby's milk money on crack, or gambled away the boys' life savings or anything like that.  But it was important, for the first time in our second-married life, that RJ was the one who actually write the checks that paid the bills.

It's been an eye-opening experience for both of us.

In the past, if we were cold, the heat was turned up.

RJ is notoriously cold natured.

There have been many, many, many times in the past that I came home from work to find RJ here with the thermostat turned up to, I don't know, 75 degrees or so. 

Not so now.

We woke up a few mornings ago and the temp had dropped overnight.

RJ's solution:

And yes, there really is a baby in there.  He's just hiding his face because his nose is so cold.  

Superhero Tuesday. Busted!

Just a typical day at 154 Hidden Court. No wonder Mama drinks sometimes.

Happy Monday, y'all!

Stupid mosquito.

One day last week, zj went on the back deck to play while I made dinner.  

I can see the deck clearly out the window from the kitchen, so it seemed safe.

He was playing loudly, doing important little boy things, and all was well.

Until he ran inside with a disgruntled look on his face.

"Mama, a mosquito bit me."  He was quite calm about it.

I asked him to show me where.  He held out his hand, which was by this point, swollen to roughly the size of a small grapefruit.

I didn't want to alarm him, as he obviously wasn't in that much pain, so I asked him to show me what the mosquito looked like.

He took me out back and showed me what was quite clearly a wasp.

It concerns me sometimes that he doesn't seem to have a complete set of working pain receptors.  

Bananas Foster - NOW WITH REAL FIRE!

A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, RJ and I used to go to this semi-fancy restaurant on a semi-regular basis.  This was back when we were fiscally irresponsible much younger, and one of the main appeals of this place was it's tableside dessert selection.  We fell in love with Bananas Foster and have never looked back.  Except to wonder maybe whether we could be retired now if we would have invested all that money we used to spend eating out.  Whatever.

Anyway, I messed with this recipe at home for years until I could create a reasonable facsimile.  Here it is.  This recipe makes two servings, but it is easy to halve it or double it or whatever.  It's RJ's #1 all time favorite dessert.  

WHAT YOU NEED:

2 bananas, sliced

4 pats of butter or margarine

1/2 cup brown sugar

a couple dashes of cinnamon

one shot banana liquor (99 Bananas or Banana Schnapps)

one shot rum

4 scoops ice cream, divided into 2 dishes

WHAT YOU DO:

Melt the butter in a skillet over low to medium low heat.  Add in the brown sugar and cinnamon and stir it up, then drop in the bananas.  SLOWLY add in the banana liquor and let it get all bubbly and gooey, stirring it as needed.  Now here comes the extra super exciting and dangerous part.  If you have a gas cooktop like I do, you might want to turn the heat all the way off first, then pour in the rum.  Turn the heat back onto low, and now you've got some options.  If you used a rum with high alcohol content (I used 151 here) it will probably ignite on its own.  If you used a lower alcohol volume rum, you can a) light it with a long match, b) tilt the pan carefully until the pan meets fire and ignite it that way, or c) just let it cook without lighting it on fire.  It makes no real difference in the taste, but it's real pretty and show-off-y to have your dessert on fire before you serve it.

After the fire goes out, let it cook for about another minute, and it will be all bubbly warm brown gooeyness.  

Turn off the heat, and let it cool for 10 minutes or so.

I have also found that it is a good idea to scoop the ice cream into the serving dishes beforehand and chill  the ice cream in the dish while you are waiting for everything else to cool.

Pour it over your ice cream and serve immediately.

It will be good in your mouth.

I promise.

This sort of sums up the state of repairs at 154 Hidden Court right now.

Here's my current around the house to-do list, in no particular order.  The chance of cj getting his "E" fixed any time soon is doubtful.

• Pressure wash the house.
• Paint the back deck.
• Paint the front.
• Repair the ceiling where it was raining inside a while ago.
• Tile behind my oven.
• Repaint my living room.
• Plant something, anything in the barren, rocky patch I so industriously tilled up last fall.
• Clean the carpet in zj's room.
• Finish the really cool tap handle holder I started some time last year
• Look more closely into the possibility of pulling the carpet up off the stairs and laying hardwood risers on them.
• Repaint the kitchen.

Crazy thing is, I really do like this kind of stuff.  But unfortunately, laundry keeps taking priority.  Over and over and over.  Are there disposable clothes out there?  Cause that would help.

Love you too.

Photo taken in some photo booth in some mall circa 1993.  Sis is notoriously camera shy, and may try to hack into my account to delete this.

My Sis B and I have a great relationship.  At least I think we do. (B, if you're reading this, and we DO NOT have a great relationship, please let me know.  So I can, you know, update the blog.)

We have numerous and lengthy phone conversations.

Oh, and I'm not sure you knew this about me, but I'm

OH LOOK! A BIRD!

easily distracted.

B has accused me on many, many occasions of not really listening to her when she is talking.  I have no idea

IS IT THURSDAY? IS PRIVATE PRACTICE ON TONIGHT?

what she is talking about.

So anyway, one day were chatting away, and

I THINK I'LL GROW MY HAIR OUT.

I needed to get off the phone to tend to something else.  She continued with her story.  I mentioned again that I needed to go.  She kept talking.  Ok, I'll admit

HEY, DID THE LIGHTS JUST FLICKER?

I that I probably wasn't giving her my full attention, but SOMEBODY'S got to drive the car, right?  Anyway, finally, it seemed like maybe she was wrapping up.  It was winding down a bit.  I could hear a low hum but it was tapering off.  So I said, "Ok, I love you, too."

Dead silence.

I thought her notoriously old, notoriously bad cell phone was dead.

Finally, I heard her say "Did you just say 'I love you, too?'" (I believe I may deserve a punctuation award of some sort for correctly punctuating that sentence.)  More silence.

"Because I hadn't said 'I love you' yet."

Damn.  Busted.

We had a good laugh, and I finally got to get her off the freakin' phone and hung up.  But ever since then, we end all our conversations with "Love you too," even if we go first.  In emails and such, it's abbreviated to lyt.

It's funny every time.

In my thirty some odd years of life, I haven't found many people who get my sense of humor (which is why, to date, I have approximately 6 blog followers, one of whom is me - I'm not even sure how that happened), but Sis gets it.  It's nice to be "got."

LYT, B.

Blueberry Fail.

Superhero Tuesday.

This is zj's new Ironman mask.

This particular photo was taken several hours after bedtime.

For some reason, he believes that I can't tell that he is out of bed as long as his mask is on.

I can tell.

Gifts from little boys.

When I found out I was pregnant the first time, I made no excuses about the fact that I really, really wanted a girl.

RJ really, really REALLY wanted a girl, too.

And we are clearly the type of people who get what we want, right?

When I found out that zj was a boy, I wasn't disappointed, exactly, it was more like low grade panic.

I didn't really know anything about boys.

I really didn't know anything about snips and snails and puppy dog tails and dinosaurs and frogs and sports and superheroes and toy cars and blue rooms and sneakers dragons and knights and oh dear god, I'd already picked out a pink crib set.

People who knew me assured me that boys are easier than girls.

People who didn't know me assured me that boys are easier than girls.

And it was clear, from almost the beginning, that zj was all boy, all the time.

When I found out I was pregnant again, I knew from almost the first minute that cj was a boy as well.  And not only did I know, I tried to blame prepare RJ, who remained hopeful for a girl, but I just KNEW.

And I was right.

So now the boys in my house outnumber me three to one.

There are ninjas, swords and superheroes on every available surface.

I'm pretty sure that the little boy smell will never come completely out of my bathroom.

The noise level is nearly equal to an 80's hair band concert.

There is this indescribable energy that permeates every room in my house.

The amount of grass-stained laundry is unbelievable.

And there are two little boys.

One of them grins a big gummy, wet grin every time I walk through his line of vision. Every. Single. Time.

One of them picks me "flowers" every day.  He even tries to make RJ pull the car over when he sees flowers that he thinks his Mama will like.

And I've decided that I love being right.

Random scenes from the park.

Easter bunny aftermath, or why I think zj is a budding serial killer.

All little kids like chocolate, right?

Right?

zj is no exception.  If it is chocolate, he will eat it.

When my sister brought him a chocolate Easter bunny, I expected him to gobble it right up, so I put it aside for later.

Later came, and I gave it to him after dinner one night.

 This was the result:

After eating the ears off and poking the eyes out, he would have nothing else to do with it, declaring it "cweepy."

Here's a close-up shot of the head, just in case you want more detail.

It's cweepy, alright.