Still Alive 'n Kickin' and the Story of an Auction

I'm still here! For real.

My kitchen is still fully operational. We still eat.

Image by bsabarnowl via Flickr

Today I had a GREAT kitchen day since Festival Foods had their super duper excellent deal meat sale. I am SO STOCKED up! Months of meals in my freezer. Yeah! Well, I mean, I'm getting there. I'm sorta still at the point where I have the potential for months of meals in my freezer. It's mostly still on my counter. So... this will be a short post. To discourage the ecoli outbreak, etc.

I just wanted to spout a bit (which I've done on a personal level with loads of friends already, so if you are one of those, my apologies for redundancy) about the girls' school auction fund raiser. Let me preface this with, I TRULY did have a BLAST! This is the first year I've managed to actually USE the tickets I bought. So that's a bonus. And I dragged Candle Natzi (one of my BFF's) and her hubster along. So that was fun, too. (Bizy Pappa had to stay home and be Busy Pappa with the Minis in tow.)

So away I went and had starry twinkles in my eyes at the piles and piles of AWESOME goods to bid on. How fun!!! Except here's kinda how it went:

ME: ooooooooooooooooh, look at that awesome sauce cool thing I really want to win! But awwwwwwww, look at the poor little crappy auction next to it that doesn't have any bids but costs a billion dollars! Oh for sure someone will outbid me. Ok, I'll bid on the crap.



and later...

ME: Oh look! The awesome sauce is going for an incredibly great price! I could so bid and win that one! Hmmmm... The crap is still sitting there at my opening bid and therefore I cannot chance winning $6000 worth of stuff instead of just $3000. Too bad. Sigh.


At the end of the night it took Candle Nazi, Hubster AND me to carry all my crap to the car. Fun stuff.
So here's what I tell myself... good cause, Brandy, good cause.

And it was. We LOVE our school and we LOVE our girls. And the school raised over $40,000. So all good.

Now, off to eBay to unload...

My Kitchen and the Cobwebs

Wow - I've been a slacker here lately. Both blog-wise and kitchen-wise. It was one of those crazy busy weekends. You know the ones - as they are happening I look forward with much anticipation to the fact that my Minis are going to sleep like STONES (or stoners or like they are stoned) at the end of it. What I forget is that keeping THEM busy keeps MAMMA busy. And I have NOT the stamina and energy that they have. Why is that? Shouldn't the Mamma be given an infusion of energy when she procreates to keep up with the procreatee? (Is that a word? Pro-create-ee... hmmm, doesn't work with an extra "e" either). Google it.

At any rate, littlest Mini has a new phrase that might give you some insight into my kitchen as of late...
"Moobie?"  "Peet-za??" (for those who don't speak baby Japanese - that's pizza and a movie.)

That's about the size of it. And tonight I think we're looking at my version of hamburger (the venison version) helper-ish. Tomorrow back to life as we know it. Except, let's face it, movies, pizza, and deerburger helper IS life as WE know it.

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Is There Any Mommy Out There?: Fall from grace

Ok, so this is definitely sacrilegious. But HILARIOUS. It's okay to laugh. Really. (As I pick myself up off the floor from laughing.)

Is There Any Mommy Out There?: Fall from grace

My Baby is TWO Today!

How did this even happen? I can remember with amazing clarity waking up at 2:30 in the morning wondering if these were contractions, or just indigestion. I remember heaving myself out of bed and coming downstairs to try and figure it out. I remember deciding it was "the real thing" and realizing I had to do some laundry, and dishes, and cleaning, and mopping, etc. I remember waking my husband up at 4:30 to let him know and telling him we had plenty of time (Mini #1 took her sweet time with 30+ hours of hard labor) and to go back to sleep. (Thank goodness he wasn't able to fall back to sleep.) I remember taking a shower to relax (a little too relaxing maybe) and calling my parents back again to tell them maybe there WAS a rush after all for them to come get Mini #1. Of course, how could I forget frantically packing the suitcase, which Pappa D promptly left at home, and the 90+mph trip to the hospital. I remember skipping the registration process and realizing the dreaded truth - too late for an epidural. No matter since Mini #2 arrived within minutes of making it into the delivery room, but still...

A couple of days later, we joyfully brought home our new family addition - a few hours after that we headed tearfully back to check her in for jaundice treatment. After that release we were home for good, thank God. I can hardly believe it has been two full years. Time surely does fly.





So today in my kitchen are all things toddler and celebratory. Breakfast was out with Grandma and Grandpa. Lunch was cotton candy at Summer Extravaganza Bonanza - gotta love Family Video for a timely celebration. (I know, BAD Mamma! but when was the last time you had FRESH cotton candy?)

Image via Wikipedia

Dinner will be Pappa D grilling out skinless cheddar wieners from a local meat market. I'm also going to do some baked beans, so I'll let you know how those turn out. Yum! Grandma to the rescue with store bought mini bug birthday cakes (so cute! I'll take pics when they get here!!)

Overall, it's for the most part a day when Bizy Mamma gets the day OFF from her kitchen. If you ask me, that's fitting, since I had to do the hard work on this day two years ago.

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A J.A.M. and a Barbie Q

Last night was my final July J.A.M. and it was a hoot! Thanks so much to my girls Jen, Rae, and Linda for coming (and Jaz for recruiting Jen to double up on her meal-making so Jaz could get some, too, despite not being able to join us). We did GREAT conquering the kitchen and loaded their freezers up with Beef Stroganoff, Orange BBQ Chicken, Chicken Tacos, Cheesy Roasted Chicken, Cilantro Citrus Pineapple Chicken, and Hawaiian Pork. YUM. I'm already hungry as I'm writing this - I may have to take a break and eat something before I finish!

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So we had a blast and we actually got something accomplished besides. It was great to listen to the kids raise the roof upstairs, too. All this and everyone was done in time for dinner.

I had some ground venison thawed, so I decided (at Pappa D's request) to make some sloppy joes. He asked me to pick up a mix (since he planned to do it himself) but I declined since I have a FABULOUS recipe that I'm going to share with you instead. This recipe is a sweet version of sloppy joes that we usually call Barbie Q (can you tell I have all girls?)

• 1 lb of ground beef (or venison, pork, chicken, turkey, etc)
• 1/2 onion, finely chopped (I don't always have onion on hand, but I DO always add a scoop (Tbsp) of Grandma's Sunday Roast Seasoning and then the onion is actually superfluous)
• 8 oz ketchup
• 1 1/2 tsp mustard
• 1 1/2 tsp vinegar
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 1/4 c water
• 1/2 tsp salt (which is not really necessary when you add the Sunday Roast Seasoning - maybe a dash at most)
• 1/8 tsp pepper
• 1/8 tsp paprika

Once you have your meat browned (and onion along with it if you got that route), add everything else and just let it simmer on low for a bit to get the flavors all nice and infused. You can serve it on bread, buns, or just eat it with a spoon.

Enjoy! And feel free to share your version! Off to eat my leftover Barbie Q...