Month: February 2009

Week’s Eats

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While last week I may not have totally stuck to my menu plan for dinners, knowing what I’d be making for lunches really helped because we didn’t skip out once! Often we’ll decide that we “need” to run an errand and pick up something while we are out. It was really nice saving that money 🙂  The chicken curry came out delicious, and I’ve finally gotten the heat down just right for our tastes. In fact, I ended up making it again on Sunday night for dinner (and some extra this time!). Friday night we went out to a local diner we really enjoy — An Apple a Day Diner in Red Hook. It’s not a fancy place by any means — there are no wall fountains or fancy paintings or cloth napkins, just good home cooking. It is the perfect place to go with kids! I ordered a Kingston Black burger, which is made with cajun spices, fried onion strings, and blue cheese. I put a little ranch dressing on it too and OMG, it was sooo good! So I’m going to try to recreate it for dinner this week. The boys will just have regular burgers.

And as usual, I am trying out one of Sandra‘s recipes. Seriously, everything she makes just sounds so delicious. I am so glad she puts her recipes online for everyone to enjoy! Speaking of which, I am working on redoing my own recipe blog, and I plan to do a better job of keeping it up to date. I’ll let you know when it’s ready!

This week also is, of course, Valentine’s Day! Since we’re going to be at my parents’ house on Saturday I am hoping to rope them into babysitting so D. and I can have a date night and go somewhere to eat. I think I’m going to do a special Valentine’s dinner for us on Thursday. I’ve been craving penne a la vodka (which is pink – how perfect!) and I know Jake loves it. Hopefully Noah will eat it. I need to think of a special dessert, too (maybe cupcakes). Anyway, here’s the rest of my meal plan:

Sunday
L: McDonald’s (I will admit that this is because I wanted a Hello Kitty watch — the Happy Meal toy)
D: Chicken curry, rice; leftovers for the boys

Monday
L: Chili-cheese burritoes with leftover chili, cheese quesadilla for Noah
D: Stuffed shells, green salad, cauliflower

Tuesday
L: Soup & salad
D: Burgers, potato salad, green salad

Wednesday
L: BLTs, Soup
D: Garlic Chicken Bites (using chicken breast instead of wings), oven fries, green beans

Thursday
L: Berkshire Blue Cheese Salads (chicken nuggets for N.)
D: Penne a la vodka, Ceasar salad

Friday
L: Either sandwiches or pick up something on the way to Mass.
D: Eat at mom & dad’s

Saturday
~ visiting my family and hopefully having a date a night for Valentine’s Day! ~

Baking & Making
~ a new batch of chili mix
~ muffins for the freezer
~ granola

For more menu planning ideas, check out Laura at Organizing Junkie

A Thaw? For Real?

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Well it looks like this weekend we might actually see some warmer tempertaures, hooray! The mid-40s sound pretty good to me right now. Come on spring, let’s get a move on. Don’t make me start looking at Wilmington NC real estate ads or searching the web for property in Virginia where it is surely a bit warmer than New York (but still on the east coast!) I swear, this winter seems so long, and even though the end is technically in sight (next month!!!), I know that we can still get snow and chilly temperatures in April.

One sign that spring is eventually coming is the calendar we got in the mail a couple days ago. Bi-weekly farm share members got a calendar this year (so we’d know when to pick up our veggies), and just knowing that in a couple months we’ll have delicious, fresh, local, organic produce is enough to help me get through these last dreary weeks. What about you — how are you coping with the mid-winter blahs?

Hooked on Crochet

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just fold up the sidesWhen I was in middle school or high school, my grandmother taught me how to crochet. I remember sitting in the rocking chair in our living room practicing, but I must have gotten bored with it because the hobby didn’t last. Flash forward to a couple years ago. My mom had made me some cute dishtowels with crochet toppers that hang on the oven handle. I wanted to make one and since I knew how to knit, I figured that I’d pick up crochet pretty easily. Wrong! I just couldn’t get it. I decided to leave well enough alone and continued knitting, happy with that craft.

Well, yesterday morning I was browsing crafting blogs and oohing and ahhing over adorable sewing projects. The idea of getting a sewing machine got stuck in my head. Last year, shortly after Christmas, I was considering getting one but quickly put the idea out of my head because of the home improvement projects we were planning. So, in order to get the thought out of my head yesterday I decided that I’d spend the day teaching myself to crochet. The house was clean, and dinner would be easy, so why not? I already had a set of hooks and plenty of yarn.

I found some good videos on YouTube and within an hour I’d gotten the single crochet down pat! I decided to just focus on doing that over and over again and by the time I was ready for bed last night I’d made myself a dishcloth:

crocheted dishcloth

Sure it’s misshapen and somehow I managed to increase the number of stitches up at the top there, but considering my previous, unsuccessful attempts to learn crochet I was pretty proud of myself. (And if you just fold under the sides, you don’t even see how uneven it is!) It’s a dishcloth, after all. Today I plan on working on double crochet and half-double crochet. The most difficult things for me so far are tension and holding the yarn comfortably. I’m sure both of those things will come in time. I’m not ready to give up on knitting (I love it far too much!), but I think this will be a fun switch!

Another Snowy Day

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Seems like the weather forecasters had no idea what was going on with this storm, but we’ve had a gentle snowfall all day. It’s been nice, actually. (Of course, I’m not the one who has to go out and snowblow or shovel!) At least the roads look OK and school wasn’t cancelled or delayed for a change.

I saw my little possum buddy again today. Oh, you didn’t know we had a possum hanging around? Last week he ventured up onto our deck:

Whoa, possum!

Today I saw him padding along from the woods. If it weren’t for that ratty tail, the things might actually be cute. He didn’t come up on the deck today, though (probably because I didn’t have any bread thrown out there yet). We have one squirrel who just about knocks at the sliding glass door around lunchtime every day, waiting for his crusts. It’s so funny!

I got a lot of things done today, so I feel good about that. I baked some banana bread with walnuts and chocolate chips and it smells so good! I can’t wait to have a slice with a cup of decaf tea or coffee later on. I also already made the curry chicken for tonight’s dinner. It’s always better when it sets for a while. All I’ll need to do is make some rice and chicken nuggets for the boys. The curry is too spicy for them and I get tired of arguing over dinner, so a couple times a week I try to give them something that I know won’t result in pouting and tears.

Not much else is going on. I’ve been super tired at night lately and heading to bed around 8. I usually read for a bit, but the other night I actually fell asleep reading, which is unusal for me. Since I’ve been a real dud at night, it’s given Drew the opportunity to work on some new music. I am super happy about that! It’s been a while since he’s been able to really focus on it. In fact, he even ordered some business cards and other promotional products like postcards to send along with demos. It would be great if he got a couple gigs and started playing out again.

I guess that’s about it! Maybe I’ll just sneak one tiny piece of my banana bread as a pre-dinner snack…

Week’s Eats

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It’s that time again! Time to get organized and try to figure out this week’s menus. I’m trying to plan lunches this week too, so there’s an added challenge 😉 Since Drew telecommutes several days a week, hopefully this will help prevent my blank stare when he asks, “What’s for lunch.” I’m also craving spicy food again, so I’m throwing some Mexican and Indian-inspired dishes in here. I’d really, really love to go for Indian buffet this week, but the boys won’t eat it, so… I guess I’ll just make my own.

Monday
L: Black bean & orzo salad with tortilla chips
D: Burgers, oven fries, leftover salad from lunch, sliced cukes & carrots for the boys

Tuesday
L: Tuna melts, tomato soup
D: Chicken curry, rice (chicken nuggets for the boys)

Wednesday
L: Grilled ham & cheese sandwiches
D: Hot dogs, baked beans, green salad

Thursday
L: Grilled chicken salads
D: Turkey & bean chili, cornbread

Friday
L: Leftover chili
D: Dinner out

Saturday
L: Leftovers or sandwiches – something easy
D: Tacos or spaghetti & meatballs

Two Down, One To Go

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There were three “big” items we needed/wanted to get before June when it’s baby-time. 1) A swing. The swing was a lifesaver with Jake and a convenient item to have with Noah. Jake was soothed to sleep every night by the swing and it help a lot with his fussiness. Noah didn’t seem to care either way, but it was a safe place to put him down when I needed to go to the bathroom or cook or eat dinner. As much as I love holding babies, you simply can’t do it all the time. (At least I couldn’t.) We’d donated our old one last year, and it was one that was given to us anyway. Last week Drew found a great swing on clearance, so that was out of the way. 2) A crib bumper. True, not a necessity, I guess, but I think a crib looks terribly depressing without one. We never had problems with either of the boys rolling into it or anything so I did want to get one. We’d also donated our old crib set last year at the same time we donated our swing. Target has some cute bumpers on sale this week, so I picked this one up:

new crib bumper

I think it’s cute and the price was right. Some of the bumpers I’ve seen are just ridiculous. The manufacturers might be able to fool a first-time mom, but not me!

Last we just need to replace our travel system. Our infant carrier is past the “expired” date on the bottom, and I’d rather err on the side of caution by replacing it. Besides, the stroller is really beat-up. We used it a lot, that’s for sure! So we’re just waiting for a couple gift cards to come in (thanks to our credit card rewards and MyPoints!) and then we can cross that last item off our list. (It, too, has a polka-dot pattern. I guess I sense a theme here, LOL!)

It feels good to get these items out of the way so I can stress about other things 😉