AMERICAN IDOL

I can't believe they got PRINCE!! Meatloaf..yeah, Dionne Warwick....okay, Burt Bacca...whatever...sure, Mary J. Blige, Live, and Toni Braxton...I'll believe that. But Prince? I was still trying to recover from the cheesy cowboy bit when he showed up with the girlies. Are they still called Diamond and Pearl?

I can't wait to see this show next year. Talk about power.

If you can't tell, I love Prince.

oh yeah, and the twitchy one won, big surprise.

Final Rachel Ray

To finish up the Rachel Ray thingie, here are the final pictures of our dinners the last few nights.

First up we have garlic mushroom pizza. It doesn't look like much, but we forgot to get a photo before cutting it. It's loaded with shitake mushroom, the normal mushrooms, swiss and mozzarella cheese. Also plenty of garlic and evoo. :-)
Next are turkey burgers and warm potato salad. We were surprised by the turkey burgers. Very good. I thought they tasted like sausage (think it was the sage) The potatos were a little blegh. I normally love potatos, especially these little red ones. Maybe I used too much white wine vinegar, but it reminded me too much of coloring Easter eggs.

So the experiment is over. It turns out I can cook afterall. We did skip one of the meals. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't get Jeff fired up about the cheese sandwiches (brie, spinach, tomato) Nothing in there he's fond of. So now we have to try and come up with our own menu plans. Probably something cheaper and hopefully using up some of the stuff I already have in my house.

Any dinner recommedations would be appreciated.

Long Weekend

Ahhhhh...... time off is nice. The long weekend started rough with a mini-cry over the adoption wait and my inability to get pregnant. You know...pretty typical stuff. But in the end, it turned out to be a really nice weekend.

Saturday we went to another adoption get-together at Sonia and Hugh's, where we got to see their wonderful nursery which will soon be filled with the beautiful Miss Kailee.

Sunday was activity day. We started at the park for a 5 mile run. And when I say run, please understand I really mean gentle jog with occasional walk breaks. But still....5 miles. Later in the day we took the new bikes to the Silver Comet trail. The rest of the afternoon was spent laying around, begging the other to get off the sofa and bring back snacks.

We finished the day with another Rachel Ray. Garlic mushroom pizza. I have a picture, but I'm too lazy to go find the camera right now.

That about sums up the weekend. Better get ready for another week....

Chicken and gravy casserole

We found the winning recipe. Talk about comfort food. The only dumb thing I did was buy a raw chicken instead of the rotisserie. It worked just fine, just took a lot more time.

Here is a picture of my Chef Jeff and the finished product. Yummy!!


Tonight we were even lucky enough to have dinner guests....My Parents!!




I hope your not getting bored of my culinary adventure. We still have a few more days. Tomorrow Jeff and I are going to an adoption group get-together. A bonfire!! Fortunately tomorrow's selection is a sandwich, which is perfect for lunch!

Tonight's dinner

And here we have Spaghetti with Mozzarella-Stuffed Meatballs. Who knew people made their own sauce?
You see, you stuff the meatball with a mozzarella cube. Cool, huh? I think Jeff is getting tired of me taking pictures of our food.

Oh well. This cooking thing is a nice way to top off a day. And tonight is the start of a 3-day weekend for us. We decided to take some time off together and hang out.

We have plans to go hiking/biking, clean the garage/office/sunroom, wash cars, and just hang out. Should be pretty great.

Steak Salad

Today's entry into our Rachel Ray marathon is steak salad. We made some minor adjustments. First, I eliminated the yellow bell pepper, because I hate bell peppers. And since I have no idea what kirby cucumbers are, we used normal ones. (Are they the skinny plastic wrapped ones?) The rest of it came together okay.

Final review? eh...it was alright. The meat was tasty. The cucumber seemed weird in there. Maybe we should have used the kirby's? Either way, I'll have another lunch ready for me tomorrow. Plenty of leaftovers. I hope I can stop picking the steak bits out of there tonight, so it''s not just garlicy corn salad tomorrow.

I would like to sincerely thank Rachel Ray for giving me something to blog about. The adoption has been boring lately. Jeff and I have returned to normal life and the adoption has been put on the back burner of my brain. I don't even go to Zoe's room and have my little Mommy-fantasies anymore. Jeff has started working on his project car finally and I'm running again. (yesterday I did 4.5 miles...woo hoo) The latest referral rumors are too horrible to believe. I'm remaining in denial until the next batch comes out. Then I'll decide if requesting anti-depressants is appropriate.

At least by the time Zoe get's here, I should be a brilliant chef!!

It's Cookin' time!!

I was at work the other day flipping thru someone's magazine....er....I mean.... someone's magazine fell open to this page that intrigued me. It was in "Everyday with Rachel Ray" and it was a meal planner for a week. It came with a complete shopping list (separated into sections of the grocery store...how handy!!) and recipes for the week. The recipes looked yummy and like something I could do so I decided to give it a try.

First of all, I'm not a Rachel Ray fan. The constantly repeated phrases like, "de-lish", "evoo", and the Betty Rubble giggle get on my nerves. But I do freely admit I watch her show because I always think, "I can do that." I just never do, do that.

Jeff's kind of on board with the dinner plan for the week, because we both want to learn to cook more as well as eat healthier. Dinners for us lately have come from a drive thru or from one of our regular dinners (which, like songs on a pop radio station are always on heavy rotation) Regular dinner's include the Gorton fisherman, rice packets, frozen pizza or anything from a box. We have gotten a little better about throwing vegetables into our diet like zucchini on spaghetti night or veggie quesedilla's instead of just cheese.

So back to Rachel Ray....the store didn't have the issue I saw so I got another one. The recipes weren't as delicious sounding, but I still wanted to give it a go, and this afternoon I took my list to the store. It was all soo exciting. I was on a mission. I don't know what flank steak is, but surely I can figure it out. Rotisserie Chicken? My store doesn't sell that. What the heck am I going to do with all these herbs? Tuna steaks cost WHAT??? Oh, and don't forget the evoo.

I push my buggy to the check out chic with everything on the list with minor adjustments for things my store doesn't have. I know I'm in for trouble and was shocked when the total came up to more than it would cost Jeff and I to eat out for a week!!

Here's a pic of the booty. Does it look like $140 worth to you?


Tonight's entree was tuna steaks in rice cracker crumbs and dijon mustard along with apple slaw. It was a giant mess during the process and Jeff started off being a crank-pot about the cost and the food choice. He's got a delicate belly and a picky palate, but in the end, he came around and was a big help. The picture doesn't look as good as it was, and certainly not like the magazine picture.

The final review of tonight's dinner??? De-lish!! It was tasty, healthy, extremely filling, and I'll have more then adequate leftovers for lunch tomorrow. We can't have left overs for dinner because there's another menu selection on the schedule. I think it's steak salad. I'll let you know how it goes....

Doggie drugs

I drugged my dog last night.....poor thing.

For as long as I've had her, (11 years) she's ocassionally had these weird night fits. I never knew what the problem was, but she would sit by my bed and whimper louder and louder until it became an all out howl. I tried feeding or walking her and sometimes that helped, but normally, it didn't She would stop if you sat by her and pet her, or picked her up and rocked her like a baby, but as soon as you put her down she started again. Jeff suggested, and I agree, it's probably tummy problems. I don't know why it only happens at night, but she looks like she doesn't feel good.

Jeff has been really good taking care of her at night. I have been known to lock her in the laundry room with a comfy bed, food, and water. I figure if I've tried everything I can for her, I might as well get some sleep.

Last fall, I mentioned this to my vet and asked if I could give my dog baby gas drops or something like that. Instead, this wonderful man gave me doggie tranquilizers! She hasn't had a fit for months, but last night she did. Boy, did she ever! We had just fallen asleep when she got fired up. I remembered the pills and gave her half of one. She was out like a light and so were we!! Woo Hoo!! Doggie drugs!!

Benedryl on the flight home? Oh yeah! (But don't worry, I won't ever lock Zoe in the laundry room)

*that picture isn't from last night....I just love it.

Desperate Housewives made me cry

I admit it....I watch this show. And since I'm drawn to any story about adoption, I'm really into the story about Eva Longoria's character (Gabrielle?) She just adopted a baby girl domestically, and in last night's show the birthmother changed her mind. She came back for the baby. I'm sure things don't happen in real life like they did in this show, but it affected me. The police came to the house with no notice and took the baby from the Dad's arms. Mom's screaming things like, "BUT SHE'S MY BABY! I STAY UP WITH HER! HE SINGS TO HER! SHE'S OURS!" It was heartwrenching.

I was tearing up and trying to hide it from Jeff, because...I mean....c'mon...it's a tv show. But still....

That is exactly why we didn't even really consider domestic adoption. The idea of taking in a baby, loving her, caring for her, thinking she's yours forever, and then losing her. It's just too much. We needed a situation with finality.

There are plenty of other reasons. But this one's a biggie.