I am such a slacker….with a laptop

I’m such a bad kid. Seriously. It’s been like two weeks since I took the time to post on my blog….and I realized the biggest reason is that I just am not happy with my blog…what direction to take, what do I want to talk about, what I my blog to look like…anyone that has visited my blog regularly will see that I have changed themes about 10 times….I am just to fickle, I guess.

So on the plus side, I just bought a laptop…does this mean that it will be easier for me to update the blog?…we will see.

Darn it…..I actually started this blog with about 25 things to say and right now I can’t think of single one…oy vey….I’ll try later…

Thursday Musings

So I visited Thursday Thunks for an idea on something to write as I avidly avoid actually working today….I didn’t like any of the potential topics for this week but I liked one from last week so here we go…

You open your front door and there is a box with a puppy in it… what do you do?

Answer: RUN!!!! Shut the door before the children see anything even resembling cute, fluff/furry bits of puppyness. Now lest y’all think I don’t love puppies, I can appreciate them. I prefer kittens but I’m not against puppies.

Except that I have too damn many to begin with…..I have a chow/German Shepard mix, a black lab, a neurotic Weenie dog, a boxer, and a moody wolf.

And with the exception of the weenie dog, they have all been found puppies. Don’t even get me started on the cats we have inherited. I am to the point now where I have said “no more critters.”

I suspect this resolve will last only until the next time Keith or one of the kids comes home with a little furball hissing/spitting/panting/drooling wrapped up in old towel or jacket and I’m gazed up on with the standard “boo-boo lip” expression and I hear the words “But Mommie/But Babe….”

Yes, it is possible

So even when I slack on updating my blog myself, I never miss visiting Mary over at Owlhaven. The woman is a Goddess on earth, full of humor and wisdom, and she’s probably the biggest reason why I started blogging again. She has managed again to astound me with her time management skills (Yes Mary, it takes skill to keep all of your hair attached to your scalp and live on 2-4 hours of sleep….) and has published a book entitled A Sane Woman’s Guide to Raising a Large Family. If you have children (at all people, you don’t need to have a small country sized family to enjoy the wisdom in this book) at all or are thinking of having children, Run, don’t walk, over to Amazon and BUY THE BOOK!!!!!!

I think my favorite gem from the book is on page 84. “Humor is one of a parents most powerful allies.” My husband has no issues teaching from a point of silliness, even resorting to fart humor to get his point across. Myself, it takes a little work to utilize my dry sense of humor into the appropriate level of silliness to get point across.  But it will work.   Just ask Mary.

Big Brother is watching….

So I know that I have been seriously slacking on my posting and I decided to make use of the “Daily Meme” link (it’s the big button over there to the left, yeah that’s the one) on my page and do my very first Meme post. I ended up at Thursday Thunks and started reading some of the suggestions. I first have to say I’m not sure I understand the concept of a Meme. I have loads of throwaway thoughts that could conceivably turn into a post, I just flake out on the follow through. But I digress…on to the real reason for THIS post. One of the Memes for today stem from the comment that “a school PTA group wants to try to ban white bread, cakes, brownies or any other “treat” from their lunch menus… plus make kids’ lunchboxes brought from home not include any “junk food”. Thoughts on that one?”

My thoughts? What a Load of crapola! Don’t get me wrong. Obesity is a real issue and it starts young. I have had food issues since I was five but what I chose to do with them now is on me. I can’t keep blaming my issues on my parents. Now that I have children, raising them with the appropriate habits and values is MY job. It’s not the schools job…my children’s teacher’s responsibility is to keep them safe at school, make sure they have the availability to eat lunch and teach them academics. And in conjunction with my own teaching, they should be teaching my 6 year old’s social skills. But that’s it. If my kid is overweight it is not the schools fault. And who does the school think it is telling me and my child that we can’t provide a treat for a school lunch, especially if I pack my daughter a lunch?

What makes this totally tragic is that it isn’t even the school or the school district. It’s other parents. Parents who are not willing to accept their own accountability in the upbringing of their children, who have a compulsive need to blame their Children’s dysfunction on someone other then themselves. The incessant whining of those who don’t want to believe that Little Mary Lou is pulling Susie’s pigtails just because she is a spoiled brat who has no concept of consequences or boundaries because we are a generation of parents that have grown up getting the hell knocked out of us and we actually have followed through with the old “When I have kids I will never spank/ground/timeout my child.” This is not a bad thing in theory but there is no middle ground. As parents there still needs to be some consequences, some boundaries. That’s how children learn right from wrong.

This kind of went off topic from the big Brother title but I’d love to see if I am the only parent of young children out there that thinks we have done a complete 180 with parental responsibility. So What are YOUR thoughts?

Prince Harry

OMG. I have just read the most amusing article on People.com. Prince Harry, the youngest son of Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana, is being instructed by his “army bosses” to “enroll in equality and diversity lessons.”

Am I the only one who finds this funny? Can you imagine his “army bosses” (whomever they might be) approaching the Queen and the Prince of Wales with the idea that this needs to happen? Don’t get me wrong, I think the younger Prince could use some lessons on “how to be one of the little folk.” I am redneck enough to belief that most children of Influence or wealth could use a reminder of how the other half lives but all this stems from a comment that was made towards a comic who didn’t find the comment offensive. He also apparently called a fellow soldier “Paki.”

My real issue I suppose is the fact that the younger heir to the throne knows all of this. He has been raised to understand the pitfalls of his position in life. He has watched his parents suffer through them…he has lost a mother to them. The boy needs no training or classes. He needs a swift kick in the “arse” and a reminder that it is always important to play nice with the other kids, especially in public.

But that’s just one recovering Redneck’s opinion.

Quick Note from CNN

This is just a quick post. I have been slacking horribly. But in my defence, life has happened.

Was cruising around CNN, and came across another story that has me heartsick.

If you have read my meager blog you can already imagine how I feel about this. I’m sending good mojo to the little girl. I have a thought that she will need it more then anyone else.

I will send another post today or tomorrow when I have something more cheerful to say.

Am I being Unreasonably harsh? Take two

So again, thanks to CNN I am jumping up on my soapbox…Another Family is lost . No details per se, but basically ya got a gun, a Dead Father, Mother and two dead Children.

I’m sorry, I really am, but I simply CANnot fathom the mentality here….Someone please try to explain to me why if you are feeling despondent/angry/confused/sad it is okay to kill your children? Since when does the child became soley responsible for the mental/emotional well being of the parents?

I just can’t, Can’t, CAN’T understand this and I’m normally a well articulated individual. I just don’t understand.

Am I being unreasonably harsh?

Okay so I decided to check CNN before jumping off line to cuddlle with my little PuterMonk (Kaycee-Lyn) and I came across the following story.

I think this father needs to be brought back to life, b*tchslapped, thwaped a few times with a cast iron skillet and then shot again.
In what reality can any one justify “Losing a job” as a suitable reason for shooting your five children, wife, calling it in and then killing yourself?

Don’t get me wrong..I am not a well off woman. Keith and I make decent money but are still lower middle class at best. Suz stays with us but doesn’t work (She’s the housemouse for now), between the three of us we have two sets of twins ages 6 and 5, Nicole (adult child of Keith) and now Kaycee-Lynn. Keith and I have lived hand to mouth for our entire relationship, we both have filed for bankruptcy in the past, are contacted daily by creditors and have come within days of losing our house to the mortgage company. We have had dinners of just ramen noodles and green beans. We have $1000’s worth of stuff in the Pawn shops. We have extended ourselves with PDL’s over the course of the past 5 years. I lost my job 4 years ago, Keith struggles with the thought of losing his daily now.

But at no time have we ever given up or thought “Gee life sucks so bad…not only am I going to quit life, but I’ll make sure my family keeps me company.”

I try to pride myself on someone who try’s to look at things from all angles.

There is no other angle here. The man was selfish. He was not thinking of his family. He was feeling sorry for himself and decided that misery needed to have company.

What a crock of Hooey.

Redneck Food Bliss

So I have made no bones about the fact that I am a recovering redneck.  But I often find myself channeling Al Pacnio in Godfather 3.  “Everytime I get out they pull me back in..”

I think that I have adopted most of Keiths Midweastern eating habits and blended them with my So-cal/TexMex habits, bypassing my former Redneck tendencies…Except for Gravy.

No don’t get me wrong, I can wield a mean gravy packet…but I make some pretty fine pan gravy too…in fact it is expected that when Momma makes gravy, it’s from scratch…

Albertson’s had Pork Chops on sale for .88 a lb. Naturally I HAD to buy a pack and basically simmer fry it in the electric skillet with a bit of canola, salt and pepper…Normally this means mashed potatos as a side…but this time I bought 3 lbs of shredded potatoes and made milk gravy…4 teaspoons of canola…a cup of flour…two cans of evaperated milk and a cup and a half of water…season salt, garlic powder, onion powder and PEPPER!!!

OMG…FOOD BLISS BABY!!!!!!!!  The consensus is that I may have outdone myself with the gravy…Even the sick Buggie pronounced it Yum even though she could 0nly eat a few bites….

sometimes, Momma is just that damn good.

Heh

Porcupine Meatballs–> Uber-Comfort Food

Being that we were due for one of our big food nights…we decided to make a tried and true dish…Porcupine Meatballs.  I have seen a few recipies for this around on the net but this version came to be via my grandmother.  (At the risk of being disrespectful, this is not the grandmother that I was particularly fond of, and I have to say this is probably the best thing to come out of my adult relationship with the woman, but I digress.

Now keep in mind that I cook for a small army…..so you can safely reduce my recipie by a quarter or a third and still have enough food for the average family of three to four…so this can be an adaptable dish….The basic Ratio is 1 lb of hamburger = 1 cup of Minute Rice= one egg= 2 small cans of tomato soup and water.

With that said, this is how we made it tonight….

We started out with 7.5 lbs of Hamburger…It was on sale and this dish makes killer leftovers..

We put the hamburger into a big honking bowl with 8 cups of Minute rice and 6 eggs.  We added Onion Powder, Pepper, Garlic Salt, Season Salt, ground Sage, and…wait, that’s was it…Okay so basically you season to taste but that’s the basic season mix that we use.  The Sage is a recent addition that my mother and grandmother would not have used, but I got make this my way.

We also added a half of a family sized can of Campbells Tomato soup.  Don’t worry about the other half, it will come into play in a few minutes.

Below is what it looked like mixed up prior to making meatballs.

Okay trust me it will all work out..despite how this looks now…

So once the hamburger et al is mixed, start rolling the meatballs. I tend to prefer golf ball sized meatballs but ever since we have started having the girls help out they range all the way from a ping-pong sized to a small apple sized. This much will make approx 50 meatballs.

Remember that half of a can of Tomato soup we had leftover? Combine that with another 4 large cans of tomato soup and equal parts of water and start simmering that in a huge stockpot. As the meatballs are formed, dump them in the soup mix.

Simmer covered for anywhere from an hour to two depending how many meatballs you have. Make Mashed potatos and serve in a bowl with the meatballs and soup on top.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.

 

Yum!

Motherhood–Anthony Style, Take Two.

I told myself that I was going to leave the Casey/Caylee Anthony coverage alone…I had no intention of re-hashing  news reports, primarily because it is so heartbreaking and it is just….horrifying.

Then I read the latest this week regarding details of how Caylee was found, and how Grandfather George Anthony had attempted, or at least contemplated with a high degree of seriousness, suicide to be with his granddaughter.

Wow. 

I think the little detail that got to me the most was not that Caylee’s body was wrapped up in duct tape and then covered in a Winnie the Pooh blanket (that’s just mindboggling enough.)…What REALLY got to me was the presumed intentional placing of a heart shaped sticker on the duct tape.  What kind of warped message is there….

And then George Anthony sends suicidal text messages to his family saying that he wanted to be with Caylee…and the harsh, judgmental side of me says “that’s a little to little to late….why didn’t you acknowledge the evidence earlier and realize that your daughter is an exceedingly ill person who hurt your grandbaby.”  And the understanding compassionate side of me says “Don’t be like that…I couldn’t imagine thinking that ill of my child and there would be no reason to think that your daughter would hurt her child….”

What a Sucky situation all around.  I try to imagine that I am cynical enough about the world in general and the human condition that very little fazes me…unless it involves a child….This just stuns me.

It’s all in the Tunes, Baby!

I blame Big Mama completely for this post. It’s all her fault. It’s my lie and I’ll tell it how I want.

I have about five blogs that I have RSS’d on my google home page, and Big Mama is one of them. Anyway she had basically posted her ipod playlist that she listens to while she works out.

Okay before you get any off the wall ideas. No, I don’t work out. If you knew me and saw me, you’d say “well DUH!” Regardless, I do use my ipod….At work. I’d be lost without it. Especially since they just moved the seven of us into an office about the size of two of your average sized walk in closets, and when the boss is in there, all you hear is the tap-tap-tapping productive keystrokes…..

Thank god the man spends more time in meetings then at his desk…

Anyway, if I didn’t have my ipod, I’d be lost. My musical tastes range from Brooks and Dunn’s “My Maria” to Saliva’s “Click, Click” to Peggy Lee singing “Fever.” Just to satisfy my slight non-conformity, I also have Dennis Leary’s “I’m an A**hole” song in the line up…Hey, politically correct I have NEVER claimed to be. And Dennis amuses me to no end.

Topic Change….

today’s inauguration… The girls were watching Family Guy on TBS and they had one of those news blurbs about the Inauguration and they started talking about it…they said that they had watched it in class at school…and I thought how times had changed. When I was their age (6) Carter had just taken office and I knew enough to know what that meant (that was the president of the country) but that was pretty much it. The girls were talking (keep in mind, it was to each other and I was just overhearing from my spot on the computer) how it “Barrack Obama is the new president of the United States” and ” yeah, and yesterday was Martin King day.” (her sister did correct her and say “Caty, you mean Martin LUTHER King day.” )

I’m one of those woman who wake up in the morning and look in the mirror and I don’t (always) see a woman who is getting ready to attend her 20 year high school reunion, or that has a 19 year old son……The things my girls talk about, like Obama and Martin Luther King, and Veterans day…these are all things I learned later in my school career…and my 6 year olds are discussing them with each other now.

Holy Crap Batman!

I truly hope that Obama can follow through with even a fraction of what he has stated he wants to do and will do. He’s right, it’s going to get worse before it gets better…BUT…wouldn’t it be wonderful if we had a politician that actually succeeded in living up to his campaign promises?

The Mind Boggles at that possibility.

And another week goes by

I haven’t had the energy to post for a week. I don’t really have the energy to post tonight but I wanted to do so… We made something for dinner last night with the uncouth name of Fart Beans. Tastes wonderful, but sounds nast.

I’m feeling kind of out of it…My boss told me today that I have been off….Not sure I’m okay with his assesment any more then I am with the fact that he may be right.

Hopefully I’ll have something more meaningful to say tomorrow.

Happy Birthday to me!!!

The girls just called me at work and Sang Happy Birthday to me!!! But was was really cute is that I heard my sister in the back ground going “ya old bat” and both girls turned around and said “mommy is not OLD, Auntie!”

I love my girls.

So I’m going to say Happy Birthday to myself. Woot!

Da Momma’s Chicken Creole

So once a month, we decide to splurge on one meal that is OMG, to die for….it’s usually one of about 10 rotating recipies but they are all yummy!

This Month we decided to do Chicken Creole…Now I found the original version of this recipie in one of those woman’s magazines (for the life of me can’t remember which one…maybe Family Circle…). Over the years I have modified and tweaked the bejesus out of this until I can safely say it’s my own.

In a nutshell, this calls for a lb of bacon lightly rendered, 2 pounds of boneless chicken breast, italian seasoning, canned tomatoes, green chiles, chopped onion and garlic…you brown the bacon and chicken and make the rest into a stew…serve over rice…

That was the original take on it…It can be that cheaply made and still be quite tasty……But I’m splurging today…this is what I did today:

First, Fry’s had boneless chicken tenders on sale for 3 lbs for 4.99, I got two bags….

So we have:

2 lbs of Bacon
6 lbs of Boneless chicken tenders
3 lbs of smoked sausage
2.5 lbs of cooked shrimp

I always render the bacon first…Under normal circumstances I love crispy bacon, but for this I usually just render it enough to be soft…Very important note…do NOT drain the bacon fat…As a disciple of the Food Network and Emeril Lagasse “Pork fat Rules!”….you need the rendered bacon grease to cook the Shrimp and Sausage in.

So we have all the meats cut up into bite-sized pieces. I fry it up in the following order: Bacon, Sausage, Shrimp and Chicken, deglazing the pan with white wine as I go. As each meat is cooked I dump it into my Monster Stock Pot

Once all the meat is done I typically add my spices, which usually consist of Italian Seasoning, Onion powder (only because Keith can’t eat actual onions), garlic salt and pepper. As the Meat is cooking I add the rest of the veggies to the stockpot

For tonights batch I added 4 cans of chicken broth, 4 cans of diced tomatos, 4 cans of french-style green beans, two cans of green chiles diced.

Once it is all in the pot, you just mix it and bring it to a simmer.

Once it’s all warm and bubbly, you serve it over rice. I personally prefer to serve it over long grain wild rice, but you can use regular long grain or even minute rice and it will still taste yummy.

Season individually with hot sauce, salt and pepper. Here’s the final product: