What's for Dinner? - March

1. TH - Parmesan Chicken Paillards with Cherry Tomato Sauce (Cooking Light 3/07)
2. FR - Roasted Chicken (store bought)
3. SA - Chicken wings (prepared by Mike on our Weber Classic grill)
4. SU - Lemon-Rosemary Chicken, Spicy Steak and Italian Sausage (again, by Mike on the grill)
5. MO - Every Man For Himself (Monday nights involve soccer and karate with little time between for food)
6. TU - Chicken Tacos
7. WE - Crustless Quiche
8. TH - Salmon
9. FR - Crisp-Crusted Tilapia
10. SA - Heavy snacking early afternoon. We spent the evening with our friend, Di, at her Boulder City home.
11. SU - See last Sunday above. It was a delicious repeat.
12. MO - Little Caesar's Pizza for the kids, Smart Ones frozen dinner for Karen. For Mike, who knows. I leave as soon as he gets home.
13. TU - Sesame Ginger Pork Chops
14. WE - Turkey Burgers on whole wheat English muffins
15. TH - Chicken Dijon (the day from hell!)
16. FR - Fair Food - Sam had Chicken Fingers and Fries, Ana had fries and I had a Teriyaki Chicken Sweker at the St. Patrick's Day Festival in Downtown Henderson. Mike? Who knows. He didn't want to come. Then we went to the carnival.
17. SA - Ribs (grilled by Mike)
18. SU - Chicken (grilled by Mike) (Karen's family visiting from Phoenix)
19. MO - Leftovers
20. TU - Chicken Tacos (family here - this feeds a crowd)
21. WE - Pasta toss (clean out the fridge of cold cuts and cheese and throw it in pasta with Olive Oil)
22. TH - Potage Parmentier (fancy French name of Potato & Leek Soup with bacon, more family)
23. FR - 777 Brew Pub at Main Street Station for Happy Hour and the UNLV Rebels v. Oregon Ducks (family again - this was a good family week.)
24. SA - Papa John's Pizza. All the family here and Ana has a soccer game at 7:20pm
25. SU - New York Steak on the grill (Can you tell it's Mike's cooking again?)
26. MO - Little Caesar's for the kids (they paid) and Crustless Quiche for the grown ups (I'm starting to see a pattern)
27. TU - Cornflake Crispy Crusted Tilapia (I altered an earlier recipe. This one was better.)
28. WE - Turkey Burgers on whole wheat English muffins
29. TH - Parmesan Chicken Paillards with Cherry Tomato Sauce (Cooking Light 3/07)
30. FR - Salt and Pepper Salmon, seared on the grill pan and finished under the broiler
31. SA - Rainbow Trout on the outdoor grill. Who can guess whose night it is to cook?

In which Ana's team loses yet again...

Scene 1: in which Ana's team dutifully sets up the defense for the incoming corner kick. (Ana is closest to us wearing #5 in orange.)

Scene 2: in which Ana's teams stares in amazement as the ball ricochets off the goalies hands and into the net whilst no one actually moves!

Stolen!

"Women and cats will do as they please and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea." - Robert Heinlein

I liked this quote so I stole it from BabelBabe. I know, I know. Two posts in one day! What is the world coming to?

Avast!

My pirate name is:

Bloody Mary Vane

Every pirate lives for something different. For some, it's the open sea. For others (the masochists), it's the food. For you, it's definitely the fighting. You tend to blend into the background occaisionally, but that's okay, because it's much easier to sneak up on people and disembowel them that way. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network

I guess 'Karen' isn't much of a pirate name. I rather like that my skull is smiling! That's the look on my face right before I sneak up on people and disembowel them. What a dreadful thought!

Credit to JamesF...or rather...Dirty James Bonney for coming up with this site. He is one of the contributors to 'Strangers Among Us', a really cool photography blog.

What the Relatives Do While Vacationing in Las Vegas

Sleep in my backyard
Enjoy the "view" from their time share condo.
Swim at the time share pool 9 miles
from where they are staying.


Take photos of Sam's damaged nose.

His hurdling skills aren't what they needed to be.
Hang out at the Clark County Museum
Wind up in jail

Even the Beer Believes

This is what the well-dressed beers wear in our house.

We

ARE

Beaver

Believers!!

The Riddle

I will admit that this riddle was a lot tougher before he added pepperoni.


The Answer is: Metro Pizza

Metro Pizza is a local place with GREAT pizza. "Metro" is also the nickname
for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

A Riddle From Sam

Sam was assigned the task of describing something so his readers would be able to tell what it is. This is what he wrote:

• It's delicious
• It contains dough
• It has two words
• It's half-cop (this is relevant only to those of us living in the Las Vegas valley based on the name of our major police agency)
• It has five letters per word
• It can be seasoned
• It's usually round
• It's bread dough
• It can't melt
• It usually has pepperoni

Stay tuned for the answer in days to come.

thursday

home-miller ms-home: drop off ana

home-smith's, starbucks-odyssey charter school: peanut m&m's for sam (mid-test brain food), iced venti non-fat chai tea latte, drop off sam for crt testing (no child left behind)

odyssey-konami: pickup mike for lunch

konami-sunrise café: lunch

sunrise cafe-konami: drop mike off at work

konami-home: retrieve forgotten cell phone so sam can call when finished with testing

home-miller ms: pickup ana

miller ms-bank, cold stone, a second starbucks: cash, cake batter with brownie mix-in (ana) iced venti non-fat chai tea latte (karen)

starbucks-martial arts supply store: I need new karate pants-they don't sell just pants

martial arts supply-fireman's memorial park: what do you mean there's no bathroom at this public park? they could afford a huge bronze sculpture, but not a toilet? WTF?

fireman's memorial park-odyssey school: use restroom, inquire after sam (not done yet)

odyssey school-starbucks: my third starbucks, and an iced grande non-fat chai tea latte

starbucks-odyssey school: sit in the parking lot and wait 20 minutes for sam to finish

odyssey school-wendy's: all that testing makes a boy hungry

wendy's-home: through rush hour traffic on I-15 then I-215 - give up at warm springs and take surface streets

a break - lay down for 15 minutes and hope the foot stops throbbing

not a chance

get up and get dinner on the table in less than 15 minutes - chicken dijon, whole wheat couscous, peas - not bad for a 20 minute meal

back in the car but not my car...my car has a dead battery and won't start. this is not new. it happens every 4-7 months. i guess now is the time. tomorrow it goes to the shop for a new battery. i don't want to be without a car for the day, so i rented one. less than 20 bucks to ease my stress-better than a manicure!

into mike's '96 geo metro 4 speed manual, no power anything

home-anthem hills park: drop ana off for soccer practice

anthem hills park-home: dang-no survivor tonight-college basketball instead-not interested

home-anthem hills park-home: pickup ana from soccer practice

put a fork in me-i'm done. bring on the blog and the wine.

goodnight

Note to Self

Find something useful to do on Tuesday evenings!

Winter in Las Vegas

The official start of spring is still a week away.

But, THIS, is what we get in Southern Nevada. This is the

desktop weather icon on my computer. DANG...I LOVE

LIVING HERE!!

In other news, the Stardust Hotel was imploded

early this morning. I was awake and actually

heard it happen, although at the time, I didn't

recognize what the sound was. Now it's just

another pile of dust. Farewell.

He's clean!

I took my life into my own hands today...and

WASHED THE DOG!!

Gizmo hates bath time and must be muzzled lest I lose a limb. Even

when wearing said muzzle, he has been known to pry it loose and bite

the hand that feeds him!

Dinner's Ready!

This is what dinner looks like when Mike is in charge.

Bouillon de Culture

These 10 questions originally came from a French series, "Bouillon de Culture" hosted by Bernard Pivot. It is probably more familiar to many as the question James Lipton asks at the end of "Inside the Actor's Studio."

I've found these questions interesting among friends. It's amazing what the simple answers to these questions reveal about a person's thoughts, feelings and beliefs.

---

01. What is your favorite word? Two actually...Dinner's ready!

02. What is your least favorite word? Good-bye

03. What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally? Music

04. What turns you off? Lies

05. What is your favorite curse word? shitfire

06. What sound or noise do you love? Rain on a metal awning

07. What sound or noise do you hate? Dogs barking and other people's children crying

08. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? Medical Examiner

09. What profession would you not like to do? Landscape Maintenance

10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? Welcome, please come in. What took you so long?

Please feel free to post on your blog and leave me a link or you can post your answers in the "Comments" section.

The Cupcake Verdict

We, the jury, in the above entitled action do hereby find the defendant, Barefoot Contessa Coconut Cupcakes, NOT WORTHY, of a clogged artery. So say we one, so say we all.


While I enjoyed making these cupcakes since I haven't done any baking in a long time, the end result wasn't worth it. I used all the finest ingredients I could find (just like a REAL chef) and followed the instructions carefully. Maybe part of the problem is that I really don't like cake.

The best part was the cream cheese frosting but I ended up with enough frosting to do another cake - maybe a carrot cake. That would be really good with cream cheese frosting.

Sam doesn't like coconut, so he won't be eating these. He asked me to leave the coconut out but I explained that they wouldn't be Coconut Cupcakes without coconut.

In the final analysis, I would much rather have spent my calories on a brownie. Not just any brownie, either. These brownies, which we refer to as Alton Brown-ies in our house.

Having said all that, none of it stopped me from eating two of them. Sigh....

Ina Garten is excessive...

For a long, long time I have wanted to try the Barefoot Contessa's

Coconut Cupcakes. Ina made these for a birthday celebration

and they looked YUMMY! I read the recipe (available on the Food

Network website and here) and thought, "What a way to die!"

This recipe has:

6 sticks of butter

5 extra large eggs

an entire pound of full fat cream cheese.

This afternoon I made them - from scratch - not the mix that is

now available at places like Sur La Table. Let me just say for you

coconut haters out there (and you KNOW who you are), this is

NOT the food for you. There is enough coconut in these cupcakes

to feed a Survivor tribe for all 39 days! Sadly, (well, not really)

Mike made a spectacular dinner tonight and I ate too much of

that so the long sought after cupcake will have to wait.

I'm sure they'll be just as good for breakfast tomorrow.

I'm a Black Belt

After 5 1/2 years of hard work, on Friday, March 2, 2007, I earned my black belt in Chun Kuk Do. I also just used 4 commas in one sentence. Whew! It was a tough night and I gave everything I had but the accomplishment was well worth it.


This is during basics...

and this is one-steps.

And this is when it was all said and done!!!

A Sad Day for Ana

Based solely on genetics, I've known for many years that there would come a point where Sam would be taller than Ana. Sam's birthfather was 6 feet tall and was only 16 years old when Sam was born, so who knows how much taller he grew. Alas, Ana's birthfather was 5'9" tall and well into his 20's at the time of Ana's birth.

Today, that day arrived.

She is quite forlorn that her 10 year old brother is now 3/8" taller and she is more than 3 years older.

All I can say is - they're BOTH still shorter than me! I'm sure that won't last much longer either. But I've been expecting it so it won't bother me.

Today's Inspiration

Ability is what you're capable of doing.

Motivation determines what you do.

Attitude determines how well you do it.

Lou Holtz - American Football coach