Hot Days = Crock Pot

Date: August 12, 2010
Recipe: Hickory BBQ Pork Sandwiches
Source: www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/slow-cooker-hickory-bbq-pork-66045.aspx

It's hot. Too hot to cook, so besides BBQ-ing burgers & dogs, a nice alternative in the summer is to use your crock pot. There's nothing like that crazy-yummy smell wafting from the kitchen - no matter what you've made. I've never smelled a bad smell from a crock pot dinner (unless you count when I put off cleaning the dish for aa few days.)

OK - this recipe has FOUR ingredients. And I didn't buy bbq sauce - I had two half-bottles sitting in my fridge and I just mixed and used up the rest of what I had. (I mean, do you REALLY need to measure bbq sauce?? Just eyeball it.) When we came back in the house after a day of playdate/library/park, it smelled awesome. I took the pork out and put it on the plate and Jim was sort of doing a happy dance when I let him have a taste.

We served this on buns with a side of coleslaw and corn on the cob - dripping with butter of course. You can't get more summery than that.

The Holy Grail of Easy Dinners

Date: August 11, 2010
Recipe: Mediterranean Stew
Source: Cooking Light: 5 Ingredient/15 minute Cookbook c 2000

One day, I want to find a lotion that smells good, has SPF, is a self-tanner & while I'm at it, it should have a firming-mechanism to it as well. Why can't I find that?? Oh - and it should be under $20. However, I did find a recipe that is easy, nutritious, quick to put together, cheap to make and my preschooler would eat. And we liked it too, but that's a bonus. It's basically the Holy Grail of Dinner Rush.

I was at Value Village a few months back - just to see if I could find some of the things that I always have on my mental 'I need' list, but when I find them at Target or wherever, I always think, "THAT'S how much it is??? Forget it!!" - Today it was picture frames, a kids'desk for Big C and sewing patterns or material in case I start sewing again (which I'm not...). Of course I went to the book aisle and started perusing cookbooks, which is a major hoarding issue for me. I LOVE cookbooks. I love their potential and I have a collection of them in my kitchen as a statement piece that I am "THIS" kind of cook. There are also a lot of books that I've never used, but I wish I was that kind of cook. My aunt Martha is the epitome - what I wish I could do one day - her kitchen has a low wall so that when you wash dishes, you can see into the family room and that whole low wall is FILLED with cookbooks of all kinds. I love it!! As a guest, I can look through the titles and find all sorts of interesting things. I still hope to do that one day in my home, but for now, I just have my little nook of pretty cookbooks and then a cabinet of the non-pretty cookbook binders that I use. I'll comment more on cookbook binders in a future post.

Anyway, I found a cookbook at Value Village (pronounced with a faux French accent) called "5 Ingredient/15 Minute Cookbook". I looked through it to make sure it had recipes that I could actually see myself possibly making and I bought it. I've already made Mediterranean Pasta with Zucchini and Mexicali Turkey Skillet Casserole, so I figure I got my money's worth - all $1.99 of it. Last night, I made Mediterranean Beef Stew and it went over super-well! I even only added two extra ingredients : ) It's a crock pot recipe, so it does have to cook over the course of the day, but this is a great way to go - especially in the summer - because it doesn't heat up your house.

Mediterranean Beef Stew
"Work time: 5 minutes" - don't you love that??

Ingredients:
* 2 medium zucchini, cut into bite size chunks (I halved it and then sliced the halves up)
* 3/4 lb beef stew meat, cut into 1/2 inch pieces (I suppose you can do this with chicken chunks or 'tenders' if you wanted to - I'm talkin' to you Liz!)
* 2 (14.5 oz) cans Italian-style diced tomatoes, undrained
* 1/2 tsp pepper (seriously - just shake it on. Why wash a 1/2 tsp measuring spoon when you can just grind some on & eyeball it?? It's pepper for God's sake - not alum or tartar!)
* 1 (2 inch thick) stick cinnamon OR 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon (Um....of course I went for the ground cinnamon - I'm not going to buy a cinnamon stick for this, but if you have any left over from a Christmas cider or something, you might as well use it to say to yourself, "see? I knew buying cinnamon sticks would come in handy!") I also did not measure this, and I was pretty liberal with it.

Directions:
Place zucchini in bottom of a 3 & 1/2-quart electric slow cooker (the round one, not oval - and NOT the tiny one made for Velveeta/salsa dip ; ) You could make this in the oval one though of course. Add beef and the remaining ingredients (all 3 of them). I added chopped onions too. You could also add other vegetables that you had on hand, but I had a screaming baby by then, so I had to act quick. Cover and cook on high setting 5 hours or until meat is tender. Or, cover and cook on high setting 1 hour, reduce to a low setting and cook 7 more hours. Remove and discard Cinnamon stick if you used one prior to serving. (duh.) I also made white Minute Rice to serve this with right before and served it in bowls. If I had more presence of mind (I made this before I got my decent nights' sleep,) I would have served it over couscous made with chicken broth and added a salad and maybe some of that crazy-awsome foccacia from Top Foods.

That's it!

Neck Pillow, Dinner and Some Hope of Sleep

Date: August 10, 2010
Recipe: Orange Glazed Chicken
Source: http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/orange-glazed-chicken-65925.aspx

I'm going to buy a fabulous neck pillow as an insurance that I won't have to use it sleeping in my nursing chair with lil c - but if I do, at least I'll be comfortable. My plan is, if I spend enough money on it, maybe I won't have to use it. Luckily, the baby slept last night - which was probably a total fluke, so I'm playing catch-up for the week's recipes because they really were great. On Tuesday, I made Orange Glazed Chicken, which turned out really well and Big C even ate some of the salad, which she usually treats like Anthrax. I think I followed the recipe pretty exactly, but I was so exhausted at the end that I don't think we served anything else. We didn't really need any side dishes though, because this dish had chicken and salad. No, wait - we did have something else...I sliced up some potatoes, tossed them with olive oil, salt, pepper & Herbs de Provence and roasted them with the chicken. I just eyeballed them and took them out before they burned - I also stirred them up once so they wouldn't stick. Herbes De Provence is this seasoning mix that I use on EVERYTHING. I LOVE it because it's kind of French-y and has lavender in it, which is aromatic & cool. I put it on roasted veggies, chicken, everything. So I put it on these sliced potatoes and roasted them with the chicken and they ended up tasting exactly like...french-fry-chips. Oh well. Of course that went over well with Big C and honestly, Jim & I kept sneaking seconds & thirds.

This recipe was easy, nutritious and interesting : ) I think the only thing I will try next time is panko breadcrumbs for the chicken with some sort of non HDP spice mix INSTEAD of the shake & bake.

Hope you get a chance to make this! (follow link above for recipe)

Bean Rhymes with Mean

Date: Monday, August 9, 2010
Recipe: Red Quinoa with Avocado, Black Beans and Corn
http://www.5dollardinners.com/2010/06/red-quinoa-avocado-black-beans-corn.html
(Modified recipe listed below)
It was not a good night. I've been sleeping in a chair for 3 days - when I actually do nod off to sleep, which is not often - with my little one in my arms (which involves frequently startling awake, panic-ing, "Am I holding her securely enough? Can she breathe?" Jim has been taking night shifts too, but I've found that there are so many hours in the night. The clock in the nursery blinks that it's 2am and I think "sh-- - there are a lot of hours to go until 5." I love my baby, but DAMN it's to her benefit right now that she's so cute. When I do make it into my bed for a few minutes, I wake up and immediately freak, "Where am I? Who is with me? What time is it?" Like I'm in my early 20's in the dating scene at Jr. College. All this lack of sleep leaves me weirdly alert in the morning, when lil c wakes up for the day and then by the afternoon, I. AM. A. B-WORD. This always crescendos around dinnertime because for some reason our culture decided to have it's main family meal - the only time of day where we can all sit together - right when I'm reenacting the evil witch character from Big C's fairy tales ("There's no such thing as witches honey - except when mommy is a Byatch during dinner prep. That's why you need to stay away from the kitchen.")

I didn't realize how tired I sounded all day until Big C was playing with Barbies, reenacting the day: The younger barbie would talk super-sassy (like Big C has been ALL DAY) and the older Barbie would speak in this monotone, deadpan voice. This went on for a while & I realized that she was processing mommy's new 'dead-tired' voice. Great.

Meanwhile, Jim has been attending a training all week and was travelling for work last week so he has been letting me sleep extra late on the weekend. We've both been doing double-shifts and we're both tired. That said, when he got home, it was...well it was pretty quiet because the fit had already hit the shan about an hour before. Yelling, crying, sassing and time-outing.

Somehow, I churned out a fabulous dinner that night though. Not that anyone 4 or under appreciated it. Still, the few bites that Big C ate, she loved, she just didn't want to be compliant by eating any more than she had to. "Mom, this is really good! How many bites do I have to eat?"

Here is the recipe. The picture looks like some kind of hash, but in reality, it's actually quite beautiful. Quinoa is pretty neat looking, especially the red variety...

Red Quinoa with Avocado, Black Beans and Corn...And Chicken
Ingredients:
* 1 Cup Red Quinoa
* 1 Cup diced green peppers (it called for frozen, but I cut up a real one.)
* 1 cup frozen corn
* 2 Cups cooked black beans (I assume that means canned, which is what I did)
* 1/4 Cup lime juice (I used the plastic squeezy lime variety)
* 2 Tbs fresh chopped cilantro (I eyeballed a handful & added what looked normal to me)
* Salt & pepper
* 1 Avocado (I used 2), diced
* One small onion, which was not in original recipe
* About a pound of chicken breasts (2 frozen Costco ones - boneless & skinless) cut into smallish chunks - or whatever size you want. Also not in the original recipe

OK - I wanted to follow this vegetarian recipe, but I couldn't not put some meat in it. Start the quinoa and cook as directed on the package before you start the chicken. I cooked the chicken in a skillet with some olive oil & salt & pepper until they were pretty-much done before I added the green pepper, onion, corn & black beans. It's sort of weird to be stir-frying frozen corn & black beans, but also kind of different. Anyway, I stir-fried them until the onions looked translucent and then added the lime juice and cilantro. Then add the cooked Quinoa to the chicken mixture and serve with Avocado on top. This dish tastes so good - I served it with some foccacia that I got at Top Foods.

Well, Big C's latest thing is rhyming words - she'll look around and say what she sees & then rhyme it with something that is sometimes a nonsense word, sometimes an actual word and sometimes unconsciously brilliant. Like when she rhymed "Sandwich" with "Bam-bitch". Luckily, it's just nonsense to her, but I smothered a laugh. I do know, however, that on Monday, 'Bean' definitely rhymed with 'Mean'. Luckily, last night when Charlotte started crying at 12am, he turned off the baby monitor with a meaningful glance at me and I finally got a little extra sleep. I have high hopes for today. Maybe for dinner I'll make something with rice (rhymes with...)

Food Should Be Made With Butter & Love

Date: Saturday, August 7
Source: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/zucchini-fettuccine-with-tomato-sauce-recipe/index.html and Garlic Stick recipe to follow

"Food Should be Made with Butter and Love".
That's what it says on a little wooden sign that I got from my Nani. I've always believed it. I just can't seem to get it through my head that carbs are bad, sugar isn't magical and butter shouldn't be spread onto every square inch of my toast until it glistens like a canary diamond in the morning sun.

Knowing this, let me tell you what I made for dinner last night - keeping in mind that the goal was not to pick up anything extra from the grocery store. I recently found a magazine that I think I am the last person to finally buy - it seems like everyone else has already been reading this - the September issue of Food Network Magazine. As I flipped through the pages, it seemed like there may be a few recipes that I would want to try or at least get ideas from. I never picked up this magazine before because my 2 favorite Fod Network chefs: Barefoot Contessa's Ina Garten & Everyday Italian's Giada DeLaurentis are now sort of out of my world. Given my present status as one-income housefrau with picky kiddos, making Ina's recipes, all of which include caviar, booze or both (love!!) and Giada's recipes are great, but most have too many ingredients or require too much thought to prepare. Anyway, this magazine had some easy, quick and fun recipes alongside 20-step taco pizza, etc. (if I have to follow 20 steps & 5,000 ingredients, I want a better result than a taco pizza. However, I could try to recreate Taco Bell's fabuloso taco pizza really easily and try to 'healthify' it... Hmmm....great idea for a future meal...

I digress yet again. On page 42 of this magazine, there is a recipe for Zucchini "Fettuccine" with Tomato Sauce that caught my eye. They suggested peeling the skin off the zucchini (and discarding that part) and then using the vegetable peeler to peel additional strips until you get to the seeds. Then, cut each strip into thinner strips - either in 3rds or halves, depending on how wide the original peeling was and use that as a faux pasta. The recipe called for ingredients I didn't have, but I did have 2 zucchini on hand. The rest of the on-hand ingredients forced me to make an old staple though. Spaghetti. In hindsight, I should have kept the sauce light, just did the zucchini noodles and side dish, but I wasn't able to think for some reason. There was something going on with Big C that day...I was sleep deprived (again)...something led me to make a meat sauce with zucchini noodles OVER other, real noodles (spiral ones - at least a different shape), but I should have just gone vegetarian. Oh well.

Whenever we have spaghetti, which is about once a week (*sigh*) because it's cheap, quick & easy, I always serve it with a veggie side and some kind of bread. Well, this time I made steamed green beans (again), but instead of butter, salt & pepper on it, I used butter (of course - I couldn't go without that...), salt, lemon pepper and a squirt of lemon juice from one of those plastic squeezie lemons, since I didn't have a real one on hand. If I did, I would have zested it onto the green beans in addition to squeezing the (real) juice on it. As it was, I had to do the fakey version. Oh well. They turned out well, but I think I will continue tweaking that to make it better.

I also made one of my favorite things that my mom used to make. I don't often make it because it they hold NO nutritional value and are terrible for you. Bisquick bread sticks. Mom, if you're reading this, I mean no disrespect. Not like me serving my family a par-baked QFC french bread loaf is the epitome of nutrition either. However, here's how you make them: mix Bisquick and water with a fork, shap them into a mound and then cut into 8-12 little pieces. Meanwhile you melt butter in an 8x8 pan over a burner. That's 1/2 a STICK of butter. Then you dredge each little Bisquick nugget in it, place it in the pan and shake a bunch of garlic salt over it. How much? Go wild. They are already dredged in HALF a stick of butter, so what's the point in going easy on the garlic salt? You put them in the oven for 10-15 minutes - check on them and pull them out right before the bottoms get burned too badly. If they do, who cares? You're eating butter and garlic salted nuggets of Bisquick and water. That said, if you have a saucy spaghetti and these nuggets-of-happy even touch the sauce, they turn into kindergarten paste (albeit salted and buttered.) Also, if they get cold, they revert to their natural state, which is hard kindergarten paste (but salted and buttered). I gladly passed down this family tradition food to my daughter, whose blood pressure skyrocketed just after eating it - just kidding. She actually liked the zucchini noodles the best after I got her to taste one, which took quite a bit of marketing on my part, but it was worth it. Of course she liked the butter/salt paste nuggets but the green beans...meh. They are fresh vegetables with no bells and whistles, after all.

"Garlic Bread Sticks" a la Sara Heck:
Ingredients:
1 Cup Bisquick
1/2 Cup Water
1/4 Cup Butter (1/2 stick)
Garlic Salt

Mix Bisquick & water with a fork and pat into a rectangle (Sara specifies 6x4 size), cut into 12 strips (I only got 8). Meanwhile, melt butter in 8x8 pan over low heat (don't forget oven mits when handling the pan...) Dredge sticks in melted butter and make sure to get all sides. Go crazy with the garlic salt. Or not - your choice. Bake at 450 degrees...That's right, all the way up there...Wow...for 10-15 minutes. Check on them often just in case. The rest of the pan will look burned (because of the excess butter), but take them out when the bottoms are brown, but not quite burned.

A Disaster and Nothing to Brag About

Jim went out of town for work, so I was on my OWN with my two daughters for 3 days!! I decided to stock up for the week at Trader Joes to find some semi-prepared cheater dinners and LOTS of snacks for our girl party OR when mommy loses it and needs a time out with sugar. I have a tradition of going to TJ's when Jim goes out of town because he claims he doesn't like their food (lie - he loves it when I bring it home. Ask him where all those crispy mini chocolate chip cookies go when I bring them home..)

Here are some of the highlights of what I bought at Trader Joes:
* Frozen Veggie Lasagne (I got a 'meh' from Big C on this)
* Eggplant Hummus and lightly salted pita rounds
* Frozen Sweet & Sour Chicken
* Triple Cream Brie (I love that they have cheap brie there...)
* Swiss Milk Chocolate Bar (because...you know...)
* Joes O's Cookies & Cream ice cream - FABULOUS!!

Here is how my week went cooking-wise and why you haven't been hearing any posts this week:

Monday: Jim got home from work at 7pm and we had spaghetti with frozen meatballs. This should be easy, since it involves ONLY the tasks of boiling spaghetti and letting frozen meatballs simmer in a sauce on medium heat for about 20 minutes. However, in order not to go crazy waiting for Jim to come home (late) I took big & lil c outside and had a tea party with them while we waited for Jim to come home. In the meantime, the meatballs were burning and the spaghetti was overcooking. What?? This meal is so easy that my kids could make it. literally. However, peobably because I just started a blog about cooking or perhaps just because I got lost in tea party world, I could already smell the meatballs burning when we finally came in to check on dinner (see picture). Jim got home just as I was cursing (though no explitives overheard by little ears). To make up for our sh--ty dinner, I also half-heartedly attempted to steam some fresh green beans for a side. To do this, I put a bunch of trimmed green beans (from our CSA box) into a saucepan with a 1/2 inch of water for a random amount of time on medium-high heat. I let them boil a while until I remember that they're on the stove and say, "Oh Sh--!". I check on them and they are magically done. Then I slather them in butter & throw in a large pinch of kosher salt. Everyone was fine with the meal except me, because hey - everyone likes spaghetti & meatballs. Kids aren't usually bothered by things like quality (example: any kid's menu mac & cheese. Why do we let our kids eat that stuff? I can barely test it to see if it's too hot because it's nasty! If Big C will eat that, she certainly won't quibble about eating burned meatball sauce on carbs. The fresh CSA green beans were harder to sell her on).
* Tuesday: TJ's frozen veggie lasagne (eliciting a 'meh' from Clara accompanied with bribing her to take four bites in order to get dessert), eggplant hummus with pita chips and also sliced plums. None of that really makes sense together to me, but it was somewhat balanced (protein, fruits & veggies) and I was tired after being up all night with lil c and trying to knock myself out entertaining both kiddos all day. How do single moms do it? Luckily both girls fell asleep before 9 (which is a miracle) and I just had to get from 12am-5am for lil c. Wait - that doesn't sound like I got much sleep...
* Wednesday: "Fish Sticks" (breaded tilapia fillets from Costco, I cut them up into "fish sticks" for Big C), mini heirloom tomatoes (from TJ's) and boiled corn on the cob (from the CSA box). Who doesn't like corn on the cob? Clara was excited and it wasn't too hard to put together. lil c didn't sleep well the night before, so I was getting more tired...and adding extremely irritable to the mix. I thought lil C was doing the sign for 'more' because she kept wringing her hands after I fed her a bite of baby food sweet potatoes. I was all excited that she learned sigh language so early and I kept feeding her and feeding her. I think you know where this is going. Of course later she was superfussy with tummy troubles until she threw up in her crib. Eventually she calmed down but meanwhile Big C was upset because she wasn't getting enough attention, it was too dark and I was trying to make her fall asleep in a little 'nest' on lil c's floor, which she (understandably) didn't want to do. Tt was just hard to give them both what they needed and I was on hair-trigger B syndrome. I finally let Big C call daddy & talk to him & lil c fell asleep while she chatted about how dark it was, how grumpy I was, what happened that day and how loud lil c cried and that she did a barf. All was finally well, thanks to Jim. I think lil c slept better than the first night, but honestly by this point, I really don't remember.
* Thursday: JIM IS COMING HOME THIS AFTERNOON!!! I kept us busy all day, but we celebrated his homecoming by making frozen sweet & sour chicken (bake the chicken as you would nuggets and toss with sauce - TJ's) with steamed green beans (CSA) and Thai coconut basil rice (microwavable - TJ's) in bowls. Jim got home just in time for dinner and everyobe felt that all was right with the world. Jim really hit the ground running with the girls, too. Everyone wanted his attention at once and even after a long car trip, he gave everyone the attention they needed as we sat down to dinner.
* Friday: MOM'S NIGHT OUT!!!!! Daddy made hot dogs for the girls and I went out with my BFF for Thai food at a restaurant with cloth napkins, the sounds of softly clinking glasses of water and wine - yes, I had a glass - and someone else's kid was fussing and crying, but it wasn't one of mine, so I didn't mind and I got to talk about big-people stuff with a grown up WITHOUT having to spell anything. We capped off our MNO with a trip to Target. *Sigh!*

Whew! So glad that Jim is home and now, on to planning this week's meals! I have to do this week's planning on the cheap, thanks to my trip to Target, but it's all worth it...stay tuned : )

Ellen Heck's Broccoli Salad

Date: Sunday, August 1, 2010
Source: Feeding the Flock Resurrection Lutheran Church Cookbook C: 2000
Recipe to follow

...So, it's the weekend and we have another get-together, this time with friends and we need to bring a veggie salad. Ellen Heck's broccoli salad (That's my Grandma, Nani) would be just the thing. I had a bunch of broccoli already and most of the other ingredients on hand but I had to do a last minute grocery run for bacon bits (the highlight, and the reason to eat the broccoli), sliced almonds and red grapes. We stopped at the store on the way to their house since we were running late, big surprise, and finished prepping the salad at their house. Is that rude? Unfortunately, it wouldn't be the first time I've done something like that. Luckily, our friends are super-nice and we were looking forward to a fun evening.

While I was chopping vegetables, lil c went berserk in her high chair because we spent the day at Redmond Town Center mall. It was 4pm and she already wanted her Celtic easy listening station & a nice boob to put her in the mood for sleep. Yes, we have a Pandora Enya station that I play on my phone to lull both of us into submission every night. I finally chopped up everything for the salad, but had to have Jim make the dressing so that I could nurse lil c. I just planned to add the dressing when I got to our friends' house and added the ingredients. this recipe in my opinion makes too much dressing, so if you make this, add it slowly and see how much you want to use. It's very Midwest in it's proportions. I brought this salad to the party and everyone was nice about complimenting it - Our friends really spoiled us though! Pineapple & shrimp kebabs, marinated flank steak, grilled squash, leek mashed potatoes and a berry pie that I seriously considered smuggling the rest out in my purse. I am still sort of thinking about breaking into their house to do it...(just kidding...sort of...) The kids got special waffle treats and rocket berry pops (homemade - healthy) and I drank a glass of wine.

Here's what's remarkable about me drinking a glass of wine. I haven't had anything alchoholic since I found out I was pregnant with lil c. Oh, people want me to drink a glass and mellow out (Jim) but I haven't because the moment I do, I know I'll be needed to hit the ground running in some parental way and I'm afraid I won't be able to if I do. My tolerance (before the pregnancy) was about half a glass before I got annoying. With a whole glass, I just get really annoying and then cut to tired. There's probably some special alchemy formula for how much I can drink to my husband's benefit, but I'm old now. When I get all drinky and sing drag queen songs into a candelabra on top of a piano, it's just sad. After half a glass, my laughter usually changes from a giggle to a loud, hearty cackle and I talk twice as much in comparison to my normal Gemini-level talking. I also float out to topics that are random and sometimes inappropriate. In short, drinking does not reveal a very impressive 'me'.

The reason all this is slightly relevent (not to the broccoli salad - I've diverged waaaay off topic to the rest of the evening.) is why I decided to have the wine. Big C chose that same day to use a ballpoint pen to become a tagger all over the (leather) interior of our car. The damage is so extensive that we didn't know whether to laugh, cry or go on a rampage. We took away her lovey for the night, which was a pretty effective punishment for her and there was a lot of unintentional yelling when it was discovered - she may have heard an expletive or two. Anyway, by that night, I was READY for wine. However, I'm still nursing. I hear of moms who nurse and enjoy their wine by timeing it so that I wait 3 hours before I nursed again. Here's the thing: you don't count out the hours from the first sip of wine you take - you count it from the LAST sip. Which was an hour later. I drank with dinner, after all. I can't just chug it - plus, it was an excellent wine. I nursed the heck out of Charlotte beforehand and we fed her banana baby food with dinner, so she should be fine without milk for a little while, right? I never had wine when I was nursing Big C, so I'm a complete ameture. OF COURSE, about 45 minutes after last sip, lil C started screaming. Screaming, I tell you. I knew what she wanted. CRAP!! What do I do?? I never should have drank that glass of wine. Well, I nursed lil c via pull-out method (which doesn't work in any setting) for about 1/2 a minute and then quick switched it with a pacifier. THAT'S RIGHT. That's what I did. lil C fell asleep (of course - was she drunk?? She seemed normal. I kept feeling her head for a fever - like that's relevant. Did I mention I'm a totally neurotic mom?? This was complete hell for me!!) Plus, I'm trying to act all casual & cool in front of our kind hosts that let Sandra Dee have a glass of wine & now she was freaking out. That night, I checked on lil C a bunch of times - what was I looking for? To see if she became spontaneously retarded in her sleep?? I didn't even know.

Anyway, all's well - lil C is fine (of course - I spent the hours after she got to sleep surfing the Internet with the search criteria, "nursing, glass of wine" until I found someone who said something like, 'sober enough to drive, sober enough to nurse.' I don't know if that's true, but at least it let me get some sleep). All this is to say that I am not drinking again until lil C is one year old. I know that my one glass of wine isn't going to do anything to lil c from the 1/2 a drop of milk that she got after I drank it, but I'm just not clever enough to figure out how to do it. Plus, now I have a four-year old for a cover as to why I am belting out the musical Wicked into fake microphones at parties. Pinot Grigio, I'll miss you, but keep your chill on until I can get to ya!

Recipe:
* 1 bunch broccoli, cut up
* 1 c celery, chopped (I eyeballed it - about 2 stalks)
* 1/4 cup green onions, sliced (I sliced 2 green onions)
* "real" bacon bits (Ellen uses real bacon that she painstakingly fries herself, but I just use da bits you can buy premade. I used about 1/2 the package)
* 8 oz sliced almonds (also used about 1/2 an 8oz package)
* Red grapes, cut in half (Ellen's recipe also calls for green grapes, but I thought I had too much green in the salad already)
* Raisins (I used one box - the small kind you'd send with your kids' lunch. It was enough. Ellen's recipe called for Craisins, but I didn't have any on hand and they were too expensive to rationalize buying - add $5 onto this dish? for broccoli salad? I don't think so...)
* I also used the potato peeler to peel some carrot shavings & then cut them up - about one carrot - just for the color
* I also sprinkled some sunflower seeds onto the salad - just to jazz it up - sorry Nani!

Directions: Mix together and add dressing just before serving

Dressing: 1 cup mayo (not miracle whip), 1 T vinegar, 1/3 cup sugar - whisk together.