Recipe PSA

Just in case any of you were planning to make the Orange Peel Chicken recipe I linked to a few days ago… do not get lazy and just microplane grate the orange peel onto the chicken.  I didn’t want to take the time to julienne the orange peel so I just grated a bit on top of the chicken.  All you could taste was orange.  Blech.  I tried to compensate with more chili-garlic and soy sauce, but then it just tasted like spicy, salty oranges.  Chris is still trying to get the orange taste out of his mouth.  He he.

Early Gifts

Traditionally the 12th anniversary gift is supposed to be silk.  Does anyone really pay attention to that stuff anymore?  We don’t.  For us it will be camera lenses and Wii games.  Woo hoo!!  Chris got his gift early (just in time for his weekend photo shoot), a wide angle lens:

This is a shot of his office building taken with the new lens.  Happy early anniversary honey!

Absurd Conversations

After watching 28 Weeks Later and Cloverfield during the last week, I told Chris that if we were ever being chased by zombies, aliens or monsters to go ahead and just get Daphne to safety and leave me.  We don’t have a will, but we do have a zombie attack plan.  Chris, of course, would never leave me.  He’s a great guy.

Another odd conversation we had recently… Does the Pope ever just want to wear a polo shirt and khakis?

We talk about the strangest things.

Sinus Pain

I woke up with a wicked headache today.  I think it’s sinus/allergy related since we’ve had the windows open quite a bit.  I really don’t like to take medication since I’m still breastfeeding, but I broke down this afternoon and took one Sudafed tablet.  Didn’t help.  Now that I think about it I should have checked kellymom.com to see if Sudafed was ok.  At least I didn’t take a full dose.  Anyway, later in the evening I dug out the neti pot and I feel a little better.  I’m thinking about trying Hyland’s Sinus (a homeopathic formula) tomorrow if I can find it.  Might also get some local honey.  If anyone has a suggestion on dealing with allergy/sinus issues without drugs, let me know.

Magic City Art Connection

If you are in the Birmingham area this weekend (and aren’t already sucked into the NASCAR/Talladega vortex) make plans to attend the Magic City Art Connection. Lots of great artists, food, entertainment and kids activities. Chris will be there Fri-Sun shooting the event for ONB. Here are a few pictures he took at last year’s event, plus a link to his MCAC Flickr set.

It’s Not Easy Being Green

Daphne & I celebrated Earth Day by driving all over town, wasting gas and idling in traffic on 280. We are just doing our part to save the planet.

Actually we did leave the A/C off for most of the day. I say most of the day because when it got to be 77 degrees inside the house I couldn’t stand it anymore. We normally keep it warm (74-76) in the house over the summer, but 77 is my breaking point. I also used my new Charlie’s Soap (for the laundry). It’s a vegetable based, biodegradable cleaner. I don’t think our towels have ever been more clean. And it gets out poop, even says so on the bottle. Which is handy with Princess Poop-A-Lot. And again, I contemplated buying a few cloth diapers. Currently our dryer is on the fritz, so I think I’ll wait. We’ve already had our fridge break down, now the dryer (I think it’s the heating element), and usually these things come in threes. I predict the A/C compressor will be next. Why didn’t these things break down last year, when I was employed???

I swear I’ve seen a million blog posts today with environmentally friendly green topics. I saved a few, in particular ones about making your own cleaning products. Here’s another one I might actually try: fusing together your plastic bags. I think I might do this and sew up a few reusable shopping totes.  Which might come in handy when we go CAMPING.

Yep, me… camping.  I mentioned a few days ago that Chris really needed to use his camping equipment.  We have a tent, kayak, portable stove, sleeping bags.. all that junk.  Tonight he’s headed to Whole Foods to hear a presentation from Fresh Air Family and Mountain High Outfitters about camping locally with kids.  Lord help me.  I told Chris I would be glad to go camping as long as it wasn’t too hot and we had access to showers and toilets.  He just laughed and told me that wasn’t camping.   What do you mean it’s not camping?  It’s not like we are setting up camp in our front yard.  I’m not an outdoor girl.  The last time I attempted to try to bond with Chris and enjoy nature was an afternoon spent hiking in Feb 2007.  Little did I know this would involve fording a river and then climbing up a steep path.  I was pregnant at the time.  Sucked.  But I don’t want Daphne to be as prissy as I am, so I’m going to suck up my hatred of the outdoors and irrational fear of tree filled spaces (I’ve watched way too many Friday the 13th/camp killing movies, plus Blair Witch) and start planning a camping menu.  

Baby Food Goatee

After 2.5 months of trying to get Daphne interested in baby food, she decided she likes it.  The only problem?  As soon as it touches her lips she’ll blow a raspberry.  I need one of those helmets that welders have to save myself from the spray.  I wonder if they sell those at Lowe’s?

Daily Daphne

Daphne helped me trim up our landscaping today.  It was VERY bright out.  Daphne needed her sunglasses.

Summer Eats

About three times a year I get completely sick of our normal menus and start looking for new recipes to try. Usually it works out to January (when we are burned out on heavy holiday food), March (when we switch on the A/C) and November (when it gets cool enough to bake again). I’m really weird about turning on my oven. If it’s hot out and the A/C is on, I just don’t want the additional heat in my small kitchen. So we grill out on the back deck and I use my stove top and little toaster oven. Sometimes I’ll pull out my portable roaster oven if we want a ham or something. That way I can set it outside, or in the utility room. In the summer we eat a lot of grilled chicken, salmon, shrimp, tilapia, pork tenderloin, kabobs. After eating salmon every week for 2 years I’m so burned out. Just thinking of salmon makes me ill. We need a change.

So, this past weekend I tried out a few new recipes:

A PF Chang’s knock-off recipe, Mongolian Beef. Tasty, but there was too much cornstarch on the beef, which made the sauce kinda gloppy.

Italian flank steak with rosemary mashed cannellini beans. This recipe came from one of Chris’ Men’s Health magazines. I really liked the mashed cannellini beans. We took a can of Progresso beans, a little bit of olive oil, rosemary, salt, pepper, minced garlic, heated for a few minutes and mashed it up.

Rosemary bread. This recipe was perfect and super easy since it was from the bread machine.

Here are a few more I want to try in the next week or so:  Orange Peel Chicken, Baja Fish Tacos,  and probably chicken or pork tacos using Penzey’s Rojo seasoning.   If you have any great summer recipes, send them my way.

Help Wanted

The next house we buy will have the main floor at ground level. No exceptions. Our current house has a walk-out basement and garage. I hate coming from the grocery store, driving into the garage, going through the basement, up the staircase, through the living room and finally into the kitchen. I need a dumbwaiter. Or maybe a little pack mule getup for Allie. That dog really should earn her keep somehow.

Today we brought up the elliptical from the basement. It just wasn’t being used enough downstairs so we decided to put it in our bedroom. This meant I had to help carry the thing up the stairs. I’ve told Chris from now on if he wants help carrying anything over 100 lbs (or anything huge and bulky!) then we are going to drive to Hoover and pick up a few Spanish-speaking day laborers to help us out. I can’t do it anymore. Chris gets frustrated, I get frustrated. Seriously, day laborers are cheaper than marriage counseling.