Thursday, July 30, 2009

Call Off The Search Party

Some of you may remember this post where I chonicled the missing loves of my daughter and the follow-up strip search of my house. It is with great relief and honest-to-goodness shock that I am able to report to you that three favorites have indeed been found. All together. By my daughter. In her brother's room. Inside this fabulous little gift box.



Do you want to know many times I have moved that box?


Too many times.


And not once did it feel like there was anything in it.
Damn Beanie Babies.





Now we are a family of twins.






Some cleaner than others.


If anyone placed bets on how long it would take to find them, 11 months would have been the winning bet. ELEVEN MONTHS.

Monday, July 27, 2009

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Lasagna Jill


This is the pasta roller I found in the back of a bottom cabinet of the last house I rented in Santa Barbara when I moved out. Left behind by one of the many interim roommates my roommate had in between me living in the house. I was her first and last roommate in that house, but there were a few others between those stints! I am guessing the metro-Italian roommate forgot that this was in there and is probably wondering to this day what happened to this thing. Needless to say it got boxed up with my things and began its long journey of moving from one house to the next with me. Never once being opened or used. For 10 years. But hey, these can be expensive and I knew I would use it someday. Maybe.

While I was searching Smitten Kitchen for a basic tomato sauce recipe, I found this yumminess and I was inspired. Since I have been making other ridiculous things from scratch recently, I decided I would break this puppy out. So my trusty travelling companion (the pasta roller) and my favorite helper (preschool face paint included!) got started on making some noodles!

I was pretty impressed with this little guy and pretty happy I had carted him around for ten years.

I was pretty impressed with this little thing too! She rolled ALL of the noodles. By herself, of course, because that is what four year olds do. Everything, by herself.
Noodles. Check.

I sauteed up some deliciously fresh veggies (unfortunately not from my sad little garden, but I am holding out hope for things non-squash related).

I cut up some of the mozzarella I had made the day before. I know. I know. I said I have been making ridiculous things from scratch recently.
I am afraid to tell you that there is more.

This is the ricotta cheese that I made after I made the mozzarella. Did you know that ricotta is a by-product (so to speak) of the mozzarella? I did not either. But after you make your mozz, you boil the crap out of the whey that is left in the pot for 10-15 minutes. Dump it into a flour sack lined colander and what do you know, ricotta! The funny part is, I like the ricotta better than I do the mozz!

This is the Basic Tomato Sauce that caused all this crazy-business in the first place. Mmmm.


And the final melty-cheesey-saucey-goodness. And yes, you would be correct if you asked why it looks like there is not any melty-cheesey goodness on one side of that beautiful lasagna. And the would be because the boy can;t have dairy. So I just left a little off one of the edges for him to eat.

The lesson for today is - do not throw out valuable appliances because you never know if you might use them. Once every ten years.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Panic! (Not at the Disco)

A couple of weeks back, the weirdest thing happened, I started spotting. A week before I was "scheduled" to get my period. Weird, right? Didn't think too much about it. The next day I was lying in bed thinking about getting up and was all of a sudden overcome with nausea. So much so, I had to kick my daughter out of my bathroom as she was finishing up and tell her to go wash in her hands in her own bathroom. I didn't end up getting sick, but I had to stand there for a little while until the feeling passed.

I know! I was thinking the same thing.

So, I go to tell my husband that I think I am pregnant. And you know what, he starts laughing at me. You read that right, LAUGHING. Personally, I did not think this was anything to be laughing at. This was what I have been paranoid about for 19 months (the age of my youngest). That I was going to get pregnant again and we would have three children. THREE! Not the two that I had been planning on FOREVER. I knew this would happen, I had been so sure all along that we were only going to have two kids - that THIS is what I would get for being so sure. It was going to all come back and bite me in the ass, as so many other things had done in the past!

Right, so back to the laughing. He was laughing at me because of his vasectomy from almost a year ago. You know, the one where they snip out a section and then cauterize both ends. Really, cauterize, I didn't know about that part. But, BUT! I said, sometimes they grow back together, it has happened before, I am pretty sure I could find a statistic online somewhere! Know what I got with that...more laughing. More laughing and the look, the look of "well what have you been doing that you would go and get yourslef knocked up..." "Yeah, right." I said to "the look". When on the ever-loving-earth would I have the time to have an affair. I mean really.

Needless to say, he talked me down off the ledge and brought me back to reality. I am indeed, not pregnant (whew!) not that we wouldn't have welcomed that baby into our home, but HOLY COW...I was convinced!

Days later, he tells me that his first thought when I told him I thought I was pregnant was "great, now we are going to have to get a mini van!"