Two year old (will be three next month) is missing out on her preschool’s Thanksgiving event today.  She is instead sitting next to me on the sofa, still in her pajamas, watching Yo Gabba Gabba and sipping on a cup of lukewarm super sweet tea.  She keeps saying “me no feel so well Mommy”.  I ask her what doesn’t feel good, and she says “Evebyting”  Poor dear.  Her brother on the other hand feels fine and is running around like a crazy child.

When Mim does feel well enough to play, she’s building “castles” or setting up train tracks all over the living room. And as soon as she steps away to lay down and rest some more, her brother comes through like King Kong and destroys everything, which sets Mim off crying.

Oh, and did I mention it is thunderstorming, so I can’t even let the boy burn off some energy outside?

Luckily, the kids aren’t afraid of thunder, just of imaginary kitty cats, so we’ve got that small blessing.  I just hope we all get over these colds soon.  Thanksgiving is no fun in a sick house!

I’m not sure what to call this.  The original idea was sort of Spanish inspired, but my ingredients were more Italian.  It turned out more like a French cassoulet, but there was no duck.  It could be a cholent, except for the non-kosher meat, and the fact that it cooked for a few hours, not 18.  So, let’s just call it really good.  Because that, it definitely was.

1 lb hot Italian sausage (the kind you put in spaghetti), uncooked, and cut into slices
1 small onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 red bell peppers, rough chopped
1 can cannelini beans
1 can red beans
1/2 carton chicken stock
2 medium bunches kale
3 Tbl raw white rice

In a medium size dutch oven, or other heavy stove and oven safe pot, brown the sausage.  Don’t cook it through, just get it started.  Add the onion and the garlic, stirring to get everything started.  Once the onions have softened, add the peppers.  Stir again.  Drain and rinse the canned beans, and add them to the pot.  Pour in the stock, to just barely cover everything.

Pop it all into the oven at 350F and bake (covered) for a few hours.  Seriously, this isn’t exact.  If you have 30 minutes, that will do.  If you have all day, it just gets better as it cooks.

20 minutes before you want to serve, chop the kale and add that to the pot.  It will look like it won’t all fit.  Just give it a good few stirs.  The kale will wilt and everything will be perfect.  Toss in the rice, give it one last stir, and put it back in the oven, covered for another 20 minutes.

It sounds simple, and plain.  It is anything but.  Please, if you are only going to try one recipe of mine, make it this one!

In the continuing saga of Becca breaking every freaking thing she owns . . . DH was unloading the dishwasher and called me in to see something.  My measuring spoons had slipped out of place and melted against the bottom heating element of the dishwasher.  I hope they didn’t break the dishwasher as well, but at the very least, my measuring spoons are broken and need replacing.  (This makes item #47 in the last 20 days for those of you playing the at home game.)

Obviously, I was displeased.

I cried out “shit!” as I pulled the mishappen plastic out of the dishwasher.  To which Miriam responded likewise at the top of her lungs.

DH then started laughing hysterically at the 2 year old shouting “shit”, which only encouraged her more.

head*keyboard

So now my 2 year old is wandering around shouting “shit”, my 20 month old is crying, my spoons are melted, and my husband is laughing while washing dishes.

At least something good came out of this, right?

If you’ve ever wanted to see what a true mess looks like, follow these instructions:

1. Set up your 20 month old at the little table with a spoon, paper towel, and a small bowl of chocolate pudding

2. Dash off to deal with sick, crying, nearly 3 year old

3. Return 30 seconds later to see son, table, and most of the kitchen floor covered in chocolate pudding

4. Freeze in shock, allowing said 20 month old a chance to dash off into the living room and climb up onto the cream colored sofa

Yeah.  Not fun.  I wish I had gotten pictures, but I was so shocked I just cleaned it up first.  I’m sure your imagination can fill in the rest though.

I don’t do “horror”.  I don’t like scary movies.  I don’t enjoy suspense novels.  I can’t even handle haunted houses.  My husband however, loves the stuff.  His fondest memories from high school are of working the haunted house in town.  He thinks Steven King novels don’t qualify as “scary”.  Monster movies are totally his thing.  He’s been reading The Walking Dead comics since issue 1 came out way back when.  So, needless to say, he got very excited when he found out they were turning his favorite comic series into a t.v. show.

Yesterday, we watched episode one of The Walking Dead. I don’t know how he conned me into watching it, but he did.  All my facebook and twitter feeds are full of praise for this show, and honestly, I can see why.  It’s visually stunning, well plotted, and scary as all get out.

The problem is, it gave me horrible nightmares.  Plus, my 20 month old isn’t talking yet, and in the middle of the night, his grunts and whimpers in his sleep sound awfully zombie-like.

Add to that the time change, with kids being up and ready for the day at 6 a.m., and I’m not sure I’m going to make it through the day.  Every time I close my eyes, I see a half corpse-zombie crawling through the grass.  Or a horde of zombies attacking a tank.  (If you’ve seen episode 1, you know the scenes I’m talking about, if you haven’t, don’t worry, I’m not giving out spoilers.)

So, I think today may be a huge quantity of coffee day.

I understand episode 2 premiered last night.  Ugh.  Pray for me.

In other news, better news, happier news that may just distract me from the horrors my darling husband inflicted on me, I have winners!

I plugged the numbers into a random number generator.  Okay, really, since there were only 10 entries I grabbed 10 scraps of paper, wrote 1-10 on each of them and laid them on the coffee table this morning since we were up at 6 a.m. anyway.  Asher grabbed two of them and brought them to me.  Well, no, Asher grabbed two pieces of paper and shoved them in his mouth.  I fished them out and figured out who our winners are!

Drumroll please!

The winners  of a $50 gift card courtesy of Kodak Gallery are . . .

Entry number 4, Jessica Garcia and entry number 1, Dreamsweaver. Watch your email for a message from me.  I’ll need your address so I can have your prizes shipped to you.

Those of you who didn’t win, keep reading because we’ll have another give away soon!  Have a great, zombie free day!

Who loves photo albums?  You know I do!  I bet you do too. Well, lucky for me, I got on a list.  What kind of list?  A blogger list!  Somehow, Kodak found out about little old me and decided to give me a free photo album, and to give two of my readers free albums too!  You lucky readers you.

For Halloween, Kodak made all sorts of amazing new halloween themed photo albums, and through the 11th, you can order one for your very own.  Or you can hang on to your giftcard and do albums for holiday gifts, or for yourself of the year, or whatever.  Don’t tell Kodak I said that though!

So now that you’re all hot and bothered for one of my two $50 Kodak gift cards, allow me to sweeten the deal!  Now through the 11th, in addition to the really cool Halloween theme books, you can get 50 free Mommy Cards, and free prints if you order a medium or large size photo book.  I’m over the moon here myself.

How do you get one of these amazing cards?  It’s easy!  Head on over to Kodak.com and take a look at the goodies.  Then come back here and comment on what size book you like best, or what card design, or whatever.  Basically, tell me what you would order if you were lucky enough to win one a gift card for free Kodak.com products.  It’s that simple.

Somebody is going to win, actually, because Kodak and I are so generous, two somebodies will win.  It might as well be you!

You have until the end of the day on Sunday, the 7th of November to enter my giveaway.  It doesn’t give you much time, so hurry up and comment already!

Inspired by Scary Mommy, I’ve decided that I should send 16 year old me a message.  Fifteen years later, I have a few things I want to say to myself.

• Relax.  Nothing is that serious or important.  Really.
• Tell your folks the truth, especially about the piddly stuff.  They really are on your side.
• Do your homework damnit!  You’re spending more time avoiding it and making up excuses than it would take you to just do the work.
• Have some fun, it’s allowed.
• Those cigarettes your friends are rolling ain’t tobacco, and really, that’s okay too.
• Look around you and actually see what is going on, not what you expect to see.  The world is so much bigger and brighter than you realise.
• Never ever ever be embarrassed by what you read. Heck, just stop being embarrassed at all.  Other people just don’t care that much about every little misstep in your life.
• Again, have some fun.  Really.  Stop trying to be perfect and just enjoy.

Late last night, my 20 month old decided to grab hold of the top of my laptop and pull backwards, hard.  Luckily, he wasn’t hurt.  Unfortunately, he did manage to crack the screen on my computer, rendering it a useless brick.  An expensive useless brick that is.

A few years back, my husband bought himself a toy.  An Acer netbook.  It’s the teeniest tiniest computer I’ve ever seen, but for now, it’s all I’ve got.

He’s got $5,000 worth of computers and parts all over the basement.  I’ve got a $200 Lilliputian laptop, running linux I might add.  Obviously, I have no familiarity with linux.  He tells me it is in fact running Ubuntu, but really, to me it’s all “huh?”

I managed to get access to my blog though, without any tears!  Hooray!

So, here I am pecking away at a minuscule keyboard, trying not to be resentful that when his computer has the teeniest issue, he runs straight to Tiger Direct or Dell and gets whatever it needs, no questions asked, and when my computer is killed violently, I hear “maybe before the end of the year”.

At any rate, here I am, with 75% of the functionality I really need.  So, I’ll muddle though, and the blog is still functional.

Counting my blessings.

So, any advice on how to make this Ubuntu netbook fun?  Please?

I know, two recipes in a row.  I’m working on a big give-away post though, so just hang in there!

• 2 acorn squashes
• 1 cup cooked rice
• 1 beef polish style sausage (substitutes could include andouille, Italian sausage, or any other flavorful meat you like.  I suppose leftover ham or bacon could work too), diced.
• 2/3 cup cooked broccoli, chopped
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, diced
• 5 (or so) dried tomatoes (sun dried are great, I just used dehydrated), diced
• 1 tsp ground cardamom
• 1 tsp Chinese 5 spice
• salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375 F.  Carefully slice the squash in half and clean out the seeds and stringy parts.  Sprinkle with salt.  Bake on a parchment lined cookie sheet for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, saute the onion and garlic in a bit of olive oil. Combine the rice, sausage, broccoli, tomatoes, and spices in a large bowl.  Get the onions nice and starting to brown around the edges.  Add them to the rice and stir everything together to combine.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Gently spoon the rice stuffing into the squash, being careful to not smush it down.  Return everything to the oven and bake for another 20 minutes until a fork slides easily into the squash.

Serves four adults, or two adults and two toddlers with one squash 1/2 left over for Mama’s lunch the next day.

A yummy, healthy version of homemade baked mac n’ cheese.  You can’t beat this one folks!

• 2 Tbl butter
• 2 Tbl flour
• 1 Tbl mustard
• 1 small onion, diced fine
• 2 cups milk
• 1 cup shredded cheese (whatever your favorites are, mix em up, but please use real cheeses, not pasteurized processed cheese food)
• 1 box elbow macaroni (I use whole grain)
• 1 can pumpkin
• 1/4 crushed crackers, or bread crumbs

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and cook the macaroni according to the package instructions, subtracting one minute of cooking time.  Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 375F. When the pasta is done, drain it but do not rinse.

In a medium saucepan, melt the butter.  Once it is all melted, stir in the flour.  Now you have to work fairly quickly here.  Stir constantly and get all the flour incorporated so that you have a paste.  Then add the mustard and onion.  Again, stir it up as fast as you can.  We don’t want to overcook our roux!  Once everything is combined, pour in the milk and turn the heat down to medium.  Stir constantly until the sauce thickens.  Do not let it boil.  Add the cheese in small portions, making sure each is fully melted before the next addition.  When all of the cheese is melted into the sauce, turn the heat down as low as it goes.

Put the drained pasta back into the big pot.  Add the canned pumpkin.  Pour the cheese sauce over the whole shebang and combine.  Once it is all mixed up, scoop it into a 9×13 pan (I like pyrex, but whatever you have will work). Sprinkle with the bread crumbs and bake for 30-45 minutes until everything is hot, bubbly, and the crumbs are slightly browned.

Serve with a green salad.