I wish...

I was...

Here

Right now...

Whens My Vacation?

Finally

We are finally getting some real snow. It has not snowed and stuck since October.Who knows how much we are really going to get...

Fish Art

Abigail made this for me this week. She told me the story that went with it but I was on Facebook (insert ashamed look here) so I wasn't paying attention couldn't hear very well. I think it had something to do with a special purple one and lolly pops for everyone. Pretty though!

This is the one Haley did in about 1 minute. It is sideways (sorry!) but her story had to do with a mermaid and a fish friend, I think...

I get pictures on a daily basis from the girls. I thought that I better take a picture of them before I throw them away, lose them.

Saucy

 We are picky. Okay, I am picky. I am so picky, about everything. Everything, but especially food. If I find something that I like I stick with it. When I go to a restaurant I find something that I like and I almost never order something else. I am one of those people that can eat the same thing day after day after day and never get sick of it.

1.When I first went to Kneaders about 10 years ago (when there was only one of them in Lindon) I got the turkey with provolone on focaccia bread, lettuce, tomato, and Kneaders sauce. I got the sandwich in a meal with homemade Parmesan crusted chips and a fruit tart. Cut to 10 years later and I am still ordering the exact same meal every time that I go there, which up until 2 months ago was several times a week.

2. The first time I remember ordering Moons Over My Hammy at Denny's I was probably 16. When and if I ever have been since as an adult, I still order that grilled ham and cheese sandwich. Call me crazy, I like what I like. Don't ask how many years ago that was, let's just say that I have been eating that sandwich for a long time.

So as you can see when I find something I like I really do just stick with it. So you will understand that when I tell you that the pasta sauce that I have been serving my family for the past 8 years or so stopped being manufactured I was a bit unsteady. I say unsteady because I really did not know what to do or where to go. I literally had to sit down when I found out that it was discontinued. What the heck was I supposed to do. We had tried every sauce on the market to find the one that we liked, so now what? I went to every store and bought every jar that I could find. I went an hour north and went to the Air Force Base and cleaned out the shelves at the Commissary and bought all that they had in stock as well. Once we ran out of the stock pile I just stopped serving anything that needed red sauce.

 I figured that I had 2 choices. Make a homemade sauce (HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!! I used to make my own sauce when I lived in New York while growing up and it was good, but hey that was a long time ago. I have no desire to start that again) or try a bunch of sauces until we find one that we all like. I thought trying a few would be more fun and this time I can see what my kids like too. I had a short list of criteria that the sauce had to fit into that include, but were not limited to:

*No chunks 

*Not too acidic

*No meat or sausage included (we add our own)

*No sweet taste

*No chunks

*No chunks 

It was narrowed down to two sauces. One was a medium priced brand name and one was a generic brand that was $0.99 a jar.

I added cooked ground meat to each of the sauces and taste tested them with noodles. It was unanimous. Everyone liked the cheap no name brand sauce better. Nice. I guess we have a new sauce. The kids are excited because we have not had spaghetti in like 6 months :)

Here is my little Jason:

Jason was not feeling good on Sunday night but if you know Jason as well as I know Jason you would have thought that it was a ploy to let him stay home on Monday from school. We were just coming out of a week long break from school and I know that he was not excited to head back to school. He is just not a fan of school and it has always been a fight to get him to go and have a good day. So when he was acting sick I told him to go to bed and that we would talk in the morning. In the morning when I came out into the kitchen he was sitting at the counter in front of his cereal looking sort of gray. I asked how he was feeling and he just shrugged. I felt his head and he was warm so I told him fine, he could stay home. I told him that he needed to go to bed and go back to sleep and I would call him later. After school when we got home he was laying on the couch. When asked what he did all day he said that he played computer a little, watched TV, and slept for a while. He had dinner and was sent to bed with Motrin for the fever. In the morning I sent Lewis down to check on him. Lewis said he was hacking and too hot. I went to see him and knew immediately that he needed to go to the doctor. Of course it was "Cafe Rio" salad day at school so I not only was up all night checking on meat that was cooking, but I could not take the day off from school. Lewis took him to the doctor and sure enough he was told that Jason has pneumonia! I feel so bad that I was doubting him and how sick he was. After 2 shots, a breathing treatment, and some steroids to help open his lungs he was sent home to rest.

When I got home from work he was resting on the couch. I sat with him the rest of the night. He ate some noodles and drank Gatorade. We set him up on the blow up mattress so that he could sleep upstairs Tuesday night. He woke up Wednesday morning to have some Motrin and then went back to sleep until 2:50 in the afternoon. When he woke up I gave him some Ravioli. Hopefully he starts to feel better soon. 

There is one thing that he is very excited about. Since he is sick and his lungs need to rest (his voice is even gone from the coughing, he should not talk unless necessary) he can't participate in gym for about 3 weeks. He is so excited that he will be unable to run laps at the beginning of gym class. He is excited to sit there and do nothing while the other kids run. I guess I will talk what I can get with him...

Cafe Rio (sort of...)

Once (or twice) a year we have pork roasts donated to the school from a commodity program that helps farmers sell "overages" of products at a good rate. The state gives us the money and we can get whatever we want off of a list of products. We choose pork roasts so that we can make our version of "Cafe Rio Pork Salad". If you have ever been to Cafe Rio, you like it (unless you don't eat meat).

I slow roast the pork all night in the ovens at school (checking on it several times during the night). We also make lime rice, black beans, and a special dressing for the salad. On the salad bar we put lettuce, tomato, guacamole, salsa, sour cream, and tortilla strips. When it is all said and done the salad looks like the original that is served at Cafe Rio! I even found the same metal bowls that they use at the restaurant. It is a big meal that takes a ton of time and work but it is all worth it when the kids run up and tell Lyndie (she cooks and serves the food) that they love her and her food. Also the emails thanking us from the teachers is amazing. It is nice once a year to know that they love their lunches.

In the picture above we have 300 tortillas ready to be filled with rice, beans, and pork for the lunches.