What's For Dinner?

This is one of my least favorite questions. Ranks second right after, "are you going to try for a girl?".  And it is a question that I am asked daily, sometimes more then once a day.

Tonight I made a new recipe, Curried Noodles with Tofu. I actually was going to make this last night, but at 5:45 when I started cooking, I realized that I was missing the key ingredient: coconut milk. That combined with my husband calling me to tell me he had his second flat tire and was walking to a local bike store, I decided to ordered pizza. 

Tofu, take two. When dinner was done, I realized it hadn't made as much as I expected it too. This may surprise you, but Brandon eats ALOT. I dished up small plates for the boys and myself, and a big plate for Brandon. Two out of the three boys were not impressed and refused to even try it. Jack was the only one who ate it but that was with the promise of a popsicle.

It wasn't awful, it actually tasted just fine. But halfway through my plate I had a thought.

"Why am I eating tofu, when I have an absolutely delicious pot roast turned french dip, waiting for me in the fridge?"

I ate a few more bites of cabbage, while debating if I wanted to give up my planned lunch for tomorrow. 

Tofu or beef. Hmm, tough call.  I looked at Brandon and said, "You know..." and he said, "You've got a roast in the fridge." God, I love that man.

I put my fork down, jumped up and quickly began to assemble the best french dip sandwich in the world. 

While the boys played, I savored every last bite. Did I feel guilty about eating a fat slab of meat on vegetarian night. Um, sure, but seriously, did I mention how good it was?  

Beef, it's what's for dinner.

Today is Monday

There is a book Eric Carle illustrated called, Today is Monday. The book was part of the curriculum I used  to teach literacy to kindergartners. So, for the last 4 years I have read this book every fall.  It is a fun read aloud, or sing aloud, if you know how to sing.  The book is all about the different food you eat each day of the week.

Today is Monday --- string beans

Today is Tuesday --- spaghetti

Today is Wednesday --- soup

Today is Thursday --- roast beef

Today is Friday --- fresh fish

Today is Saturday --- chicken

Today is Sunday --- ice cream

All you hungry children, come and eat it up!

On Monday my mom came and brought with her, her traditional soup.  She started bringing me soup 2 years ago when she would come down every other week to watch the boys. Last year, she came on my work day and coming home to soup was the highlight at the end of a long day.  My boys LOVE my mom's soup, not so much my soup, but that's okay.

In my head I have been chanting, "Today is Monday --- soup!"

But my mom brought me a surprise. In addition to the soup for my family, she brought roast beef for me.  I love a good pot roast dinner and had been craving it as the weather changed to cooler temperatures.  So for me, Monday meant roast beef.

Then came Tuesday. My mom left me hoagie rolls and a can of beef consume. So, Tuesday became french dip.

Now it is Wednesday and I am contemplating reheating some of the roast, potatoes, and carrots. Because that would be a good mid-afternoon snack, right? 3:10 and time for roast beef. Yep, I think so.

Today is Monday --- roast beef

Today is Tuesday --- french dip

Today is Wednesday --- roast beef

Today is Thursday --- french dip (I think I still have some rolls!)

That sounds about right.

A Common Occurrence

This evening I come home from some much needed girl time to find that my husband has been busy in my absence.

All I have to do is open the car door and I know what he has been up to.  The smell of burnt popcorn hits me as soon as I leave the car. Walking up to the house, I am surprised by how much the smell carries to the outside. I had always assumed it was just the 5 of us inside who were subjected to the lingering smell, but I guess our neighbors are also so blessed.

What has my husband been doing? Roasting coffee, of course.  We are major coffee fiends. So much that we have a budget just for coffee.  Sad, you may say, but it somewhat cuts back on our latte purchases. 4 years ago we bought a very nice espresso machine which also helps.  Especially on the weekends when all we want is a triple tall latte in the morning, one in the afternoon, and a shot of espresso at night. We may have a slight addiction.

While having our own espresso machine has helped, beans are still really expensive, and we go through a lot of beans. So, a few months ago, my husband decided he would start roasting his own.  And so it began.  He now has it down to a science and with some suggestions on fan placement from my mom, no longer sets off the fire alarm.  But it still smells. Really bad.

The coffee is good, I do sometimes miss a good Stumptown roast, but it is good. And it is saving us money.  All that is good, but at 10:30 at night, this is not the sight I want to see:

The aftermath of the roast.  Chaff, as my husband says, because obviously I am fluent in all technical coffee terms.  For the lay person that is the outer skin of the bean.

The 'tools of the trade' so to speak. My one and only cookie sheet, my pancake pan, and a heat gun.

As much as I roll my eyes at this, I will be happy in the morning when my husband hands me a steaming hot latte to take with me as I begin my day.

Maybe It's a Sign

Then this article is in the Seattle Times this morning:

"The Face on Your Plate"

Hmm....

The Elusive French Dip Sandwich

Several months ago, I got this craving for a good French Dip sandwich. This happens to be my favorite sandwich, but one I do not get to eat very often. It is rare for a restaurant to have one on the menu that isn't all fancied up.

I've loved French Dip sandwiches since I was a kid. Part of having a roast, meant having this yummy sandwich as left overs. I love the crispy bread, warm roast beef, and salty dipping sauce. When we were first married I would make a roast for my husband and I and then enjoy the leftovers the next night. Unfortunately, my husband gave up red meat years ago and since then, I have very rarely made a French Dip sandwich at home. There are already too many meals I make where each of us is eating a different protein, that I gave up on this one.

It wasn't a big deal until about November when I had a serious craving for this sandwich.  One day, I called my husband at work and asked him to search for restaurants with this sandwich. Hoping to find a yummy sandwich at a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant. With good news he told me that The Barking Dog had a sandwich. Yum, I love the fries there, and it was a small restaurant so I took the boys out to lunch.

Once we had driven to Ballard, settled into our booth, figured out what they would eat, then turned to order my meal, devastation struck.  They were out of roast beef. I was in shock.  I quickly weighted my options, stay eat something else, or load up both kids drive home and make lunch. So I ordered the fish and chips. It was fine, but not what I wanted.

A few weeks later I was still wanting this sandwich. One day I was grocery shopping by myself, which is always a treat, and I decided to ask the deli if they made a French Dip sandwich. They did! I was so excited. I ordered it, waited forever, and finally was given a lovely box with my sandwich and au jus read to go!  I drove to a park, got out my book, and took my first bite of sandwich. YUCK! It was seriously disgusting. I'm not sure what their au jus was but it wasn't French Dip, it wasn't salty, or even good. I ate the sandwich but was not able to dip it, which is kind of the point.

Fast forward to February. We are in California, visiting family and we watch this show Man Vs. Food. Never had seen it before, but it was quite funny. We watched the Seattle episode, Portland episode, and finally the LA episode. Guess what was featured in LA?  Yep, the place where French Dip sandwiches were created. I watched them make the sandwich, dip it in the juice and I almost died.  My husband looked at going to LA to eat this sandwich but it was an extra 2 hours South. When you are trapped in a car with a 4 year old and a 2 year old, an extra 2 hours is not going to happen.  That was okay but it sparked the craving once again for my sandwich.

Last Thursday it snowed. Totally random, and the only school district that closed was mine, and on my one work day.  The stars were aligned, I called a friend who lived in Ballard, and asked her to meet me at The Barking Dog. I was going to get my sandwich!

I was so excited all the way there, I did not even really care that the boys are not big fans of this restaurant, I was giddy.  My friend also ordered the same sandwich and after the first bite said "Oh, this is really good". Yay! I take my first bite and think "What?? This isn't right!" The bread was soggy, the roast beef had cheddar on it, and the au jus was not salty!  It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't good either.  

Ugh! I think I have given up. The only place I have found this sandwich is Maggie Bluff's.  I like it but we only tend to go there in the summer.  Maybe for my anniversary this year my husband will take us there for dinner.  Either that or it is time to break down and make a roast for myself. Actually, come to think of it, I believe I have a roast frozen in the freezer. French Dip goodness, here I come. 

I Think I Need a New Rolling Pin

I've had the same rolling pin since Brandon and I got married. We got married 2 weeks after I graduated from college and with Brandon still needing one more year. Money, we did not have. So I went to my mom's and took any extra dishes/utensils she no longer needed. I ended up with a hodge podge of things, but at least I had a somewhat functioning kitchen.

One of the items she sent with me was her rolling pin. It is not a fancy rolling pin, in fact, some might consider it kind of ugly. It is green and plastic. But I remember my mom rolling pies and biscuits with this very same rolling pin. I remember standing in the kitchen waiting for my piece of biscuit dough. Or watching her make pinwheels out of the left over pie crust dough. One of my fondest memories is my mom baking in the kitchen using this rolling pin.  

My family loves biscuits and pizza. Both things we make on a regular basis and I find myself reaching for this same old rolling pin almost weekly. I like the idea of my boys creating memories of me baking them a special treat. They already stand there begging for a bite of dough as I try to us my rolling pin to roll it out.  

Unfortunately, my rolling pin had an unfortunate encounter with my vacuum cleaner. I am not sure what happened but before I knew it one handle of the rolling pin had been sucked up into the vacuum cleaner. Needless to say, neither appliance has been the same sense.  For a while, my rolling pin looked like this:

Still usable, just missing a handle.  Well, I'm not sure what happened but now my rolling pin looks like this:

I just put it back together every time I need to roll dough. It is not working our so well, but I am managing.  Why don't I buy a new one, you ask?  Because I am hoping that under the Christmas tree I will find a new rolling in from my mom.  I can not just go to the store and buy some random rolling pin.  I want the connection I have with this broken, old, plastic one.  

As I teach my boys to make pie crust, homemade biscuits and pizza dough, I want to think of my mom showing me how to make the same things.  Girls or boys, who doesn't love homemade apple pie, fresh biscuits with honey, and, well, in our house roasted beet pizza!

The trouble with money

I have to admit I have an issue with money. Not with spending it unnecessarily (really!) but more with thinking I have been 'cheated' out of my money. This tends to only happen when I have cash on hand, which thankfully, is not often.

The first time I became aware of this problem was our first trip to Seaside. At dinner the last night, or second to the last night I can't remember, I counted my money remaining and had less then I thought. I went back in my mind over all of the meals I had eaten, lattes I had enjoyed, and all the taffy I had bought.  I kept coming up with the wrong number. I felt in my gut I should have more money in my wallet then I did. This was very upsetting to me because the only thing I could think of was that my sisters had some how 'taken' my money. Now, I know they didn't do it intentionally but I was quite convinced at one of the meals I must have put in more money to pay for my share of the dinner then I should have. It was only $6 so it wasn't a huge amount but it was very upsetting to me.  Well, I won't go on but I will say that, no, my sisters did not take my money. I had forgotten about the $6 admission fee to the aquarium we had gone to. It was a little embarrassing, and to this day my sister's still tease me about how I felt I had been gip'd by them.

Well, I realized this is a serious problem I have when I went to take my boys out for ice cream the other night. Their dad had a dinner meeting and we were on our own for the night. For a special treat we headed out to Baskin Robbins before going to a park to play. I was so excited to go and eat ice cream with my beautiful boys.  I ordered Jack's strawberry ice cream cone, my rocky road ice cream cone, and a spoon for Micah. When I went to pay my heart stopped! I only had $2, where was my money? Each week my husband and I get $10 for  our 'coffee' money. This can be spent anyway you want but that is our cash to use for treats, mainly coffee. I was going to use the rest of mine to pay for our ice cream cones. I knew I had only gone for coffee once that week and it had cost $3. Where was the rest of my money! 

I sat down to eat my ice cream but could not enjoy it. I spent the entire time re-tracing my steps of the week to find out where my money went. I knew on Tuesday I had stopped at McDonald's after VBS for chicken nuggets for the boys. I did not have my $10 with me and ended up paying with my debit card. That night I went to Bible Study but did not spend any money there. Then, Wednesday, I stopped for a latte because I knew that from 2:30 on it would be a VERY long day. I got a triple latte and handed over my $10 to pay.

That was it! My barista must have taken my $10 and given me change for a 5 dollar bill! I go to the same drive-thru espresso stand and the barista is always the same. On Wednesday he was telling me a long story about President Bush and he must have looked at my money wrong. I was very upset. I was considering if it was possible to bring this up with him. I know $5 is not a lot of money but it was my coffee money for the week and it was gone.  

By the time I came out of my musings over my missing money, I realized Micah was on the table licking the window and Jack had ice cream all over his face and hands. Quickly, we cleaned up and left. I was still very upset about my stolen money and was once again re-tracing my week when I remembered. Oh, yeah. The boys and I went on a walk Tuesday afternoon to Cafe Javasti and shared a butter horn and I had an iced coffee. Oh, right, that is where I handed over my $10 and was given a $5 bill as change. I guess my money was not stolen and I did not have to confront my friendly barista to demand my money back.

I think I need help.

Tater Tots, Part Deux

My very first post was about tater tots and how much I love them and how my boys hate them. Well, I have not had any tater tots again until today. I figure that something so golden and delicious can not possibly be good for you. Also, most days by the time I finish feeding the boys I just grab whatever I can find to eat. Having tater tots for lunch requires a patience I do not always have.

But today I decided I did not care. I had spent the morning cleaning my kitchen, unpacking the very last boxes of kitchen stuff/crap and organizing my shelves again! I decided I wanted a nice little treat for myself for lunch. By the time the tater tots were done lunch was long over. I loaded up my plate with a few piping hot tots and headed into the play room to find the boys.

As soon as I sat down I had one little boy come walking up to see what I was eating. I knew this was a trick because neither of my boys like tater tots. I gave a very small piece to my baby to see what he would do and he ate it. That was kind of a surprise to me but I continued to eat my tater tots not unaware of how my life was about to change. Next thing I knew my 3 year old had also realized I had something yummy. He came over and asked for a piece. I told him he didn't like it but he was insistent that he did. So I gave up another small piece to him. "Yum" he says "that is good". WHAT??!! The boys do not like tater tots that has already been proven. Nope, now my oldest is back for a second piece and this time adds ketchup. It is all over after that. I quickly inhale the remaining tater tots on my plate while my baby is distracted and my toddler is still eating his piece. When he finishes he turns to me and says "Want more, mommy". At which point I have to say, "I'm sorry, they are all gone".

If I had known I was going to have to share I would have made the whole bag!

Why I Will Never be a Vegetarian

Two words: red meat. I just love red meat: steaks, hamburgers, sausage (well, that I think is pork) and of course roast beef. I would take a good roast almost any night. I still remember Sunday dinners; coming home and smelling a roast in the oven. We would have mashed potatoes and gravy, broccoli and cheese sauce. My mom doesn't even ask me what my birthday dinner will be, it is the exact same menu as what we used to eat after church.

Once again I hate to say it but my husband and I do not agree. In fact, I swear that one day he sat down and made a list of all of my favorite foods and then decided what foods he could no longer eat: dairy, fried foods, or red meat. Ummm... cheese, ice-cream, sour cream, milk, tater tots, french fries, hamburgers, steak, ROAST BEEF! These were no longer foods that were welcome in our home.

For the most part I have compromised and made foods that I used to love but with a slight twist. Tuna casserole with no cream of celery soup or mayonnaise can still be okay. Cooking tacos with 2 meat options, ground turkey for him, is not that difficult, and for a time I even gave up my roast. For years I stopped cooking roast beef because I knew how much he hated it.

But that all changed when I had my second son. The first night home from the hospital my mom left a pot roast in the oven. She poured french onion soup on top and put it in the oven on a very low setting. By the time I sat down to eat, the meat was well done, the potatoes a nice golden brown, and the carrots were caramelized. I think it was the best roast I had ever had. I ate it for dinner and then for lunch several days in a row.

Since that day I have started to make a small roast about once a month. I buy my husband gross chicken thighs and put them in a separate pan in the oven. I don't even care how they taste because I have my delicious roast to eat. I have to ration out how much I eat that first night to make sure I have an equal ratio of potatoes, carrots, and meat to last several days. For some reason this is another favorite food of mine that neither of my kids seems to appreciate. They have too much of their dad rushing through their veins.

Once, for a very short time, I thought about becoming a vegetarian. I even bought 2 vegetarian cookbooks to try to see what we could eat. This lasted for maybe a week, when I realized I would have to give up red meat. That was the end of my vegetarian life style.

I told my friends my next blog would be about roast beef. So there it is. I really truly do love a good roast and will gladly give lessons for those who have yet to cook one!

Tater Tots

I love tater tots, I do not even mind that they are supposedly "kids" food. I simply adore everything about them. I love their crisp, crunchy, golden brown exterior that gives way to a piping hot, mushy potato center. I went grocery shopping a little too close to lunch time today and when I went into the frozen food section to buy spinach (another fav) I saw the bag of tater tots and they were calling my name. I decided a little treat for lunch was in order.

I already know my husband would be disturbed by my lunch choice, and even my 3 year old can not understand my absolute passion for tater tots, but I have one more person to try and convert. Micah, my 10 month old, he seems pretty open to eating different things. So far I have found him eating paper, an unidentified object from the kitchen floor, and a poopy wipe he pulled out of the trash. I am very excited to introduce him to these little nuggets of heaven.

When we get home from grocery shopping, before I even begin to put away the food, I have turned on the oven in preparation for my treat. I wait patiently for it to heat up to 450 degrees, before I can even put the tater tots in the oven. Then I have to wait 10 minutes for them to cook. The directions actually say 12 minutes, but I can not wait that long. Finally, after what seems like an eternity, the timer goes off. They are done!

I pull them out of the oven all toasted brown, cover them with salt (because that is also what makes them so good), get out the real ketchup - no generic bottle this week, and sit down to eat my lunch. I take one off my plate and carefully pull it apart, blowing on it to make sure it is not too hot before putting it on Micah's highchair. As soon as a piece hits his tray he has made a grab for it and puts it right in his mouth. Oh! I think he likes it!

But wait, now he is gagging, coughing, sticking out his tongue and trying to spit out what is in his mouth. This can not be happening. Not even Micah will eat tater tots. Unfortunately, he does not realize that what he has found to eat now is just another piece of tot and off we go again with the gagging.

I guess I will just have to eat the whole bag myself. That is really too bad.