Tuesday, 10/26/2010

I was going to grill pork chops tonight, but the pork did not defrost fast enough.  Rather than risk partially cooking the chops by using the microwave defrost feature, we pulled out plan b.   We grilled roasted pepper and asiago cheese chicken sausages and made up macaroni and cheese with peas for a side dish.  The sausages were really good.  Ben dipped his in cajun catsup, and Katie and I dipped in BBQ sauce.  Katie cleared her tray of the sausage we gave her very quickly.  She wanted "MORE."  I cut up some left over chicken from last night and she finished it off too.  I like meat-eating Katie:)

This was my first time purchasing a box of Kraft deluxe macaroni and cheese.  It was definitely better than the original, powdered cheese mix variety I am used to.  The noodle quality seemed to be a little better and the sauce was pre-mixed and in a packet.  All I had to do was squeeze it out of the packet and stir it into the hot pasta.  It worked like a charm and was a nice compliment to the sausages.  Katie ate a good helping of the mac and cheese and peas too.  It was a good meal.

The best part of the evening, so far, is that when we took her upstairs for her post-dinner diaper change, she was ready to go to sleep.  She hit the sack without a peep a good 30-45 minutes early tonight.  Wow!  Thanks Katie:)

 In other news, my CDs should be ready to ship out tomorrow!!!

Monday, 10/25/2010

Just like yesterday, today didn't go as I planned.  Our internet connection went down yesterday afternoon and still wasn't back today.  I waited around the house this morning for a call regarding the service appointment that never came.  So, our morning grocery shopping trip was postponed until this afternoon.  The technician showed up about 10 minutes before I was going to put Katie down for her nap.  She was so excited to have the tech in the house, that there was no way I could get her down until he was gone.  She kept saying his name, Jason, and "fix it" over and over again.  It was pretty cute:)  She also kept trying to make sure he knew that there was a vacuum in the room with him by saying "vacuum" repeatedly too. 

When our connection was re-established and Jason said goodbye, Katie finally went down for her nap.  We weren't ready to go grocery shopping until 4pm.  I looked out the window and saw a sheet of rain outside.  Great.  I called Ben and offered to pick him up from work so that he wouldn't have to come home via the bus in that weather.  He was kind enough to accept my offer and then go grocery shopping with us.  Katie had been asking to be in the car cart at the store all day.  When we got to Fred Meyer, the car cart was already claimed by another family.  Fortunately for us, the dad offered us the cart since his son had been in it many times.  His son was not very happy about it.  In fact, we "drove" past him once and he glared at us.  Oh well.  At least Katie was happy! 

When we got home, we broiled chicken breasts that I had marinated in Grill Mates Chipotle Pepper Marinade.  The chicken was moist and delicious.  Ben and I really enjoyed it.  We had iceberg lettuce wedge salads with the chicken.  Katie would not even touch the chicken to her lips tonight.  Instead, she ate half a hot dog, dipped into ketchup, and drank water with ice and a little diet lemon/lime carbonated water in it.  She was a happy girl:)

Sunday, 10/24/2010

Katie didn't nap today.  She was in her crib for over an hour this afternoon and never stopped chattering for long.  Her fake nap ended when the chattering turned into crying.  Needless to say, it ended up being a very long day for her parents.  At one point this afternoon, Ben and I both laid down on the den floor to rest while she played around/on us.  Ben was actually able to doze off.  I guess I was more in her way than he was;)

Katie was not in the mood to eat dinner, even though we knew she had to be hungry.  We got her to eat a little ham in her high chair, but then she threw a tantrum in order to get down.  She kept crying each time we tried to guide her away from something she couldn't have, like my phone.  We finally got her back into her high chair, but only after she insisted on having it moved into the middle of the kitchen.  Then she scarfed. She ate a bunch of tuna fish, pickles, and grapes.  She just needed to eat.  Too tired to make anything new, Ben and I just reheated the remaining BBQ pulled pork from last week and last night's cheesy noodles.  Rather than eat at the table, tonight the Ackers family dined in the kitchen with Katie. 

Saturday, 10/23/2010

Today was a good day, but nothing like we planned it would be.  We were going to go to a pumpkin patch with our PEPS group this afternoon.  When the weather looked like it would be unpleasant, we decided to cancel.  After Katie woke up from her nap at 3pm, Ben and I played a game of "I don't know...what do you want to do?"  We finally left the house at 4pm, heading to the mall to get him a new dress shirt.

After shopping, Katie got to run around in the mall's play area.  It was crazy and loud and crowded.  But, she ran right in there with all the kids and had fun.  I helped her climb up to slide down the leaf several times.  Here's a video of her doing it:)

At 5:30 we left the main mall in search of dinner.  I know it is silly, but we thought we might be able to get into the Olive Garden with only a small wait.  We did not.  It was going to be a 45 minute wait, so we decided to try someplace else.  We went to Joey, a pretty swanky restaurant.  Ben and I have been to the Bellevue location before, but never with Katie.  We were both a bit nervous that bringing a toddler in would be frowned upon.  We were pleasantly pleased that we were welcomed quite warmly. 

The hostess told us that we just "had" to have the macaroni and cheese.  She said she ate it all the time and loved it.  So, when we sat down we tried to find it on the menu.  It wasn't listed.  We asked our waitress for it and she said no problem, she'd have the kitchen make something up.  Hmmm....why would the hostess recommend something that wasn't on the menu?  The first dish brought to the table was chicken fettuccine alfredo that wasn't meant for us.  When Katie's dish did arrive, she wouldn't take one bite.    They used fettuccine noodles and then made up a creamy cheese sauce for it.  It was excellent for not being on the menu.  Ben and I both enjoyed some of it and ended up taking most of it home.  The best part was that they only charged us $1.99 for it:)

Ben ordered a Better Beef Dip-- thinly shaved beef, served with grainy mustard on an Italian bun with atomic horseradish served with red wine au jus and fries.  He said it was excellent.  I had an equally excellent chicken sandwich that included a grilled chicken breast, bacon, aged cheddar, and a spicy sauce.  I asked our waitress if it had anything else on it.  She said, "no."  Obviously, she doesn't know the dishes well, because it came with a tomato and greens on it.  Thankfully, they pulled off easily.  I just don't find that veggies add anything positive to a sandwich. 

The only things Katie would eat for dinner were our fries.  And, she was happy, quietly eating them while people watching.  It made for a pleasant meal for us.  Until...she choked on a fry.  She gagged and gagged and gagged some more.  We've started asking her to say "momma" or "daddy" when she gags, so that we know she has recovered.  This time she couldn't say anything.  It was noisy and dark in the restaurant, so we don't know how blue she got.  But, she ended up puking before she recovered.  It was quite scary for us.  Our waitress went above and beyond to help us clean everything up.  She ended up earning a nice tip.  Thanks waitress for not making us feel bad about our puky toddler.  Katie was wiped out by the ordeal, but stayed awake until we got home.  It was no surprise that she went to bed happy. 

Friday, 10/22/2010

Katie and I met Ben at Buddha Ruksa, our favorite Thai restaurant, for dinner tonight.  We got there right at 5pm and were only the second party seated for the evening.  The waitresses fawned over Katie.   One helped Katie to buckle the strap on her high chair and then brought her a shorter straw for her cup and a small spoon and fork.  And, when Katie needed to spit out the fried tofu, which she wouldn't swallow, a stack of napkins appeared on the table instantly.  We were definitely in good hands:)

I ordered food for Katie right away, because she was super hungry.  With help from the waitress, I picked Phad See Iew-- stir-fried fresh wide rice noodles plus egg, broccoli, and chicken in blackbean sauce.  When I glanced at the menu, I thought it said "wild rice" instead of "wide rice", and then I completely missed "noodle" in the description.  Katie did eat quite a bit of the chicken and a piece of broccoli, but only had a few nibbles of noodles.  Ben and I helped pick up her slack;)

We also ordered fried tofu with a sweet garlic/chili sauce, cashew chicken, and brown rice.  The tofu was just okay on its own, but the sauce was excellent.  So, I guess I was just using the tofu as a way to get the sauce into my mouth:)  The cashew chicken was alright, but I felt there were too many onions and carrots in the dish and not enough chicken.  When it comes to chicken dishes, I still prefer the restaurant's signature dish--Crispy Garlic Chicken.

Ben concluded the meal with a bowl of coconut ice cream.  I chose to pick up ice cream at Baskin-Robbins on our way home.  I had a few gift certificates to use and thought it would be a good night to cash them in.  I was sad to realize that the ice cream wasn't that good.  I wonder if the quality has changed over the years, or if I have just developed taste for more refined, fancy ice cream.

Thursday, 10/21/2010

Last Friday I picked up some short ribs in Kalbi marinade from the Fred Meyer meat counter.  I thought we would have them over the weekend, but we never did.  I wanted to use them tonight, but was pretty sure they were not going to be good anymore.  It must be my lucky day, because they were still good!  Ben grilled them on direct high heat for 5-6 minutes.  We had iceberg lettuce wedge salads to go with it.  My salad was exactly as I wanted it to be.  1/4 of a lettuce head + bacon crumbles + Kraft's Zesty Italian Dressing = tasty salad.  Ben's didn't turn out as I expected it to.  I got him blue cheese crumbles and assumed we had a blue cheese dressing in the refrigerator.  While it is hard to tell if blue cheese has gone bad, Ben was pretty sure the dressing wasn't good anymore. He opted for the same dressing I used, but was not thrilled with it. 

Katie was willing to eat some rib meat, but mainly just ate grapes and cheese.  

I cooked up a pound of bacon tonight so that we could use it for our salads and then breakfast over the next couple of days.   Rather than using a frying pan, I baked the bacon.  I lined an old cookie sheet with heavy duty foil and then placed two square, metal cooking racks inside the sheet.  The racks had to overlap to fit, but it allowed me to use the entire sheet's surface for bacon.  I covered the racks with one layer of bacon and put the cookie sheet into a cold oven.  I then heated the oven to 400 degrees with the bacon inside.  I first checked on the bacon after 27 minutes.  When it wasn't done yet, I continued to check on it every 3 minutes until it was done enough for my taste.   For thin sliced bacon, 27 minutes is often enough.  For the thicker, leaner cuts of bacon, it takes a while longer.  The cooling racks keep the bacon out of the rendered fat.  This is a method Ben learned from Alton Brown on the Food Network several years ago.

I was just about to write about how sad it is that we can no longer watch Alton Brown's show "Good Eats" on TV anymore.  We gave up cable in January and it has not been available on Hulu.com or through Netflix.  But, as I was pulling up the show to link to it for the blog, I found that there are five full episodes currently on the Food Network's website!  So, if you want to learn about salmon, canned tuna, celery, popovers, or home freezing...check it out here:)  You learn a lot about the food itself and then how to prepare it.  We've learned a lot from Alton.

Wednesday, 10/20/2010

Tonight we enjoyed the simplicity of left overs. We all gladly finished off the corn bread/BBQ pulled pork dish I made yesterday. Katie called the corn bread "cake." Very cute:)

Our evenings this week are filled with prepping for my first album to be released.  Ben took amazing photos of me and has been designing beautiful CD case inserts.  His attention to details astounds me.  It's a good thing he is in charge of the design and not me.  I could never make it look as great as he does.  We hope to have the design all done by tomorrow night so that we can submit the CD order.  Yikes...I can't believe this is happening! How very, very cool:)