Quick Dinner

So last night I got home and did not want to do anything. The kids are starving, so I make meatloaf with roasted potatoes and some of our fresh green beans steamed with lemon water. I like them still crisp tender and they were so flavorful. I decided to do a little adding to the meatloaf to give it a good flavor. So I added those french fried onions to the mix (the ones everyone puts on green bean casserole.) Added some liquid smoke, Worcestershire sauce, Heinz BBQ Sauce, an egg, Italian bread crumbs, saute onion, garlic, fresh parsley, fresh chives, and a dash of soy sauce. Needless to say I have no left overs. I could not believe how much the kids ate. Rob had even gotten a second helping. It tasted really good. After dinner, they all suggested that I need to make that again only use more meat to make it bigger.

After dinner the kids decided to ask for dessert. I usually like to have a dessert at least once a week because I love to bake. So I made home made brownies. The kids, from their bedrooms, could smell them baking and were promptly there when they heard the buzzer go off. It was so agonizing for them to have to wait 30 minutes for them to cool.

That was when Rob walks in and grabs the pan and looks at the kids smiling and says,"Oh look mom made my favorite tonight, too bad there will not be enough for you." At which time he ran with the pan. The kids had to chase him around the house for a few minutes. When he made it back in the kitchen he smiled and said," Oh I suppose you two can each have one, but that is all." They all acted like I had never made brownies before, listening to them eat those I could not believe the noises. All the yum and mmmm out of the group made me laugh out loud. Anyone else have any good ideas for quick dinners?

The garden

Well our first items from our garden have come in. Which is amazing since here in the northwest it has looked more like fall than summer. We got green beans in. They were huge for green beans and our peas are just about ready for their first harvest too. So excited, the lettuce is just about ready too. The corn looks nice and so do the tomatoes.

I am soo excited about getting vegi's from the garden, they taste so much better than the store bought one's and it saves a ton of money on fresh vegi's.

Stuffed Artichokes

I tried these this last weekend and we all loved them. I know artichokes are an acquired taste but these are good.
4 Lg artichokes          1 cup grated cheese ( I used cheddar)      2 cloves garlic minced    Salt & Pepper to taste
2 cups bread crumbs     6 tbsp. Olive Oil       1 tsp Parsley      1 tbsp. Chopped Oregano

Wash artichokes under cold running water, cut off the stem and remove the tough outer leaves. From the top cut off about 1/4 of the artichoke. Spread the leaves apart with your fingers. Take a spoon and scoop out the fuzzy flower center. In a bowl, mix the cheese, garlic, bread crumbs, olive oil, parsley, oregano, salt & Pepper. Stuff the mixture between the leaves and fill the center of each artichoke. Place them upright in a baking dish, pour enough water in the dish to cover the artichokes half way. Cover with a lid or aluminum foil, place in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for approximately 30-35 min. or until tender ( mine were larger so they took about 1 hour) Remove the artichokes from the water and let them cool some before serving.

Blind Man riding bike

Good afternoon all. You will never guess what I saw last night on my way home from work. I was on my way back from my mom's after grabbing my daughter. We were on a back street so I was just meandering through at about 15 mph. I was talking with Jess and enjoying the pretty front yards when I saw a bike coming down the street on the right side. As he was passing I noticed he was holding a stick. I thought that was odd.

So as he passed I looked closer and just could not believe what I saw. Then I started laughing because it struck me as funny. The man was riding a bike in the bike lane carrying a blind walking stick across his handle bars. Jess looked at me rather oddly and asked, " What are you laughing at?" I said, "Did you see what he was carrying?" To which her reply was, "Yeah, so what?" I said, "Do you know what it was for?" Again the blank stare with the dumb teenage,"Well duh, yeah, so?" I rolled my eyes and said, "Isn't it odd that he is carrying a blind stick while riding a bike? How is he riding a bike while being blind? Get the oddity of that?" She decided it was not that funny. What do you expect from a 14 year old who thinks she is going on 23.

I just am glad I do not have to hopefully see him in a car behind the wheel any time soon. At least I hope.

What a week

Ok sorry I have not posted for a while. I have been trying to be a good friend. My best friend is having marriage issues. I have been her sounding board and shoulder to cry on for the past couple of weeks. She has informed me that her and her husband of 8 years are separating. They also have two lovely children. Well they have one child that is both of theirs and one that is just hers but he has always been there for the oldest. Now he has decided that he is done with the lies and the trust issues. There is a lot of history here that I just do not have time to go in to.. . .  OK you talked me into it. They ( Amber and Jeremy) were together when he screwed up royally and ended up in jail. Basically drinking and driving at 19 and crashed and killed his then girlfriend that was in the car with him. He met Amber some time after that and they started dating. Well after all was said and done (which took two years to go through) he had to do two years and probation for 2 years and no drivers license for 8 years. While he was in jail, Amber had cheated on him with a guy and ended up pregnant. When all was said and done Jeremy forgave her (or so he thought) and was there for Shyanne's birth and has always been told that Jeremy is her father. Well, his sister has a lot of problems and has recently started dragging up the Shyanne is not his and threatening to tell Shyanne herself. And started telling Jeremy again that Amber is back cheating. They have been together now 8 years and married, but he is starting to have doubts again. Now I am not saying she is innocent either, she has gone out without telling him where she is going or who she is with and has lied some also just to make things easier because of his jealousy issues, and I am not saying she is right in this, because she is not right either. So it got all blown way up and has resulted in them splitting up this last week. I love them both very much and the kids are like my kids too, so I have been trying to be there for them. I am hoping that with them being apart for a while, they will be able to look at things in a new light later down the road.
      I hope that with time apart they will be better. I think they both need to have their fun that they missed when they were married at a young age. Neither one got to have fun in their early twenties due to them having to grow up and be parents. So I feel they are both wanting that fun and not wanting the other to be hurt by it. So hopefully after they get this stuff out of their system they will be able to look at each other in a new light and work things out. If not they at least gave it a try.
     So again I am sorry I have not had time to blog but I will try and work on it.