Monday Listicles - 10 Foods

This week's Listicles topic is 10 foods.  You can spin it any way that you like.  Me, I'm choosing to go with ten foods I've made.  That way, I can be sure to share pictures with you. :)

1. Baked Breaded Ravioli.  I found the recipe on Pintrest and knew I had to try it.  It came out great, too.  Next time, though, I need to make more.

2. Fundamiddles Cupckaes.  Ok, they weren't made completely from scratch but rather from the mix that I had sitting on my shelf.  But they came out wonderfully and they made great snacks for Pete's classes at PDO for his birthday.

3. Last Christmas, we decided to make a tortiere for Christmas morning.  Rich did the filling but I did the top.  I had dough left over so I figured I'd get creative.  And it came out pretty good, if I do say so myself.






Well.... it looks like I don't have as many pictures of the foods that I've made as I thought I did.  So the rest will just have to be pictureless.

4. .  Crock-pot lasagna.  This is an old favorite of mine, one that I came up with one day when I was trying to figure out what to make in my crock-pot.  I find it a lot easier than traditional oven-baked lasagna, and I usually make my own sauce to go with it.  it's something that's raved about fairly regularly.

5. Corn souffle.  I got this recipe from my step-mom, who got it, I believe, from my aunt.  It's made with creamed corn, egg, cornbread and sour cream.  Seeing the cornbread in it, my step-mom thought it would be something you'd cut like bread to eat.  Instead, it's something that you scoop with a spoon.  It's also a family favorite that I bring to many gatherings.

6. Snickerdoodles. These are far and away my favorite cookies to make.  I just love the mix of cinnamon and sugar on top.  And they're fairly easy to make as well.

7. Pumpkin Cake - This is another recipe that I am often asked to bring to holiday dinners.  I usually make it a two layer cake with cream cheese frosting in the center.  And it usually disappears before the guests all leave.

8.  Banana Bread.  We have a habit of letting bananas go uneaten in my house, which means I (semi-regularly) get to make banana bread out of it.  I usually go with the nutsless variety, because Rich isn't too big on them, but I enjoy it both ways.

9. Night Night Cookies - This is another recipe I got from my step-mom.  I still remember making them with her when I was in high school, having them ready to go in the morning.  I also remember a debacle when I tried to make them on my own the first time and didn't beat it long enough.  Instead of being dollops of cookie, it was a flat, yucky mess.  I've learned my lesson since then.

10. Grilled cheese sandwiches.  Yes, it's simple.  But I love to watch the bread brown on the skillet while the cheese gets nice and gooey inside.  It's one of my comfort foods, though I don't make it as often as I used to.

Back with the Five Question Friday!

It's been awhile since I've done... well, much of anything.  It feels good to get back to some of my old favorite memes, sharing things I probably wouldn't even think to talk about otherwise.  Today sees my return to Five Question Friday, hosted by Mama M over at My Little Life.  Feel free to join along with the weekly questions.  Just follow the link and add your blog post to the list.
Now, for some answers.

1. What do you enjoy doing the most with your spouse?
   
   This will probably sound weird, but playing a computer game together. I don't mean something like both of us raiding on WoW from our separate computers, but both of us sitting in front of the same computer, working on a hidden object game. One of us will have the "controls" (keyboard and mouse) and the other will point out objects, help solve puzzles... whatever we can find that works. It's a relaxing time for us (most of the time) and it's sharing something together.
   
2. How do you eat your taco? From the top or from the side?
   
   
   
   From the side, of course. Top down means that I wouldn't get all the flavors mixed together the same way I do when eating it from the side.
   
   
   
3. Have you ever shut off the basement light and ran like a fool because you knew someone was down there and would get you?
   
   No, but only because I've never lived in a house with a basement. In NY, we lived in a trailer and in Florida, they don't have basements because the ground isn't right for them. From the time I left college, I've always lived in apartments where I didn't control the lights. All that being said, if I DID have a basement, I can totally see myself doing this.
   
   
   
4. If you could change one thing about you what would it be and why?
   
   
   
   This is an easy question. I would get rid of my depression. I've been fighting it for more than 20 years and I'm tired of fighting it. I hate the mornings when I can barely force myself out of bed, when I can't even force myself to deal with my boys. I hate feeling like things are never going to get better and that I'm a useless lump of nothing. I want to feel good about myself more often than not, to not feel anxious about everything all the time. I just want to be "normal".
   
   
   
5. What age do you think is appropriate to have the "bird and the bees" talk with your children?
   
   
   
   It depends on the kids in question. With Teddy, I suspect it will be soon because he's so curious and he's been asking some questions. With Pete... who knows. But what I'm trying to use as my guide is when they ask questions, answering them honestly. I want my kids to know they can come to me with questions. Though, to be honest, there have been a few questions where I've punted them to Daddy because I just don't know the best way to answer a 6 year old boy. :)
   

What a Weekend!

This weekend has been a mixture of productiveness and frustration.

It started at 5:30, Saturday morning when Teddy came in to tell me he'd thrown up in his bed. I'd really hoped the sick was over because he hadn't had a fever Thursday or Friday. But when I took his temperature after stripping his bed, he was back up to 103.  I immediately had him take some ibuprofen and told him that yes, we could stay downstairs.  I got the laundry started and played around online for awhile while Teddy played Pokemon on the netbook next to me.  Pete came down after awhile and I got the boys something to eat, then Rich came down around 8:30.  Teddy seemed to be back to his regular self, but we kept an eye on him anyway.

Saturday is our usual library day, so we headed down to our favorite branch to pick up our holds and anything else that caught our attention.  The boys each got kids graphic novels (Spiderman and Spidergirl) and a few DVDs to watch this week.  I had my copy of Dexter, Season 4, Disc 3 waiting for me, along with several other books I was waiting for.  My To Read list just keeps getting longer and longer!

From there, we headed over to Golden Corral for lunch and then Big Lots for some shopping.  I decided that part of my Swap-Bot organization would be a binder with my current swaps.  I'm putting print outs of the relevant details of the swap into sheet protectors and then I can use a dry erase marker to make notes.  The paper, once it's finished, will be used for scrap paper as I work out creations that I'm trying to do. I'd thought I had a binder and sheet protectors at home, but I can't find them.  Big Lots had 1" binders for $1 and 20 sheet protectors for $1.  I also picked up one of their paper craft goody bags for $2.  More stuff to use as extras when I send swaps or for my own crafting.  The boys, as per usual, were all over the store.  Hey, it's what they do.

Even though I'd had grand plans for cleaning when I got home, I ended up napping instead.  I could barely keep my eyes open!  Rich came to wake me up at around 6 so I wouldn't sleep through supper and I'd be able to sleep at night.  He'd made a yummy roast chicken with stuffing and corn.  He's such a great cook and I'm so lucky he doesn't mind cooking!

I managed to get several of the swaps done as well.  I've got one that's getting mailed tomorrow, that I finished writing last night.  It's a very long letter describing my Friday for one of my swaps.  I didn't think I'd done so much until I wrote it all down!  I hope my partner likes the letter!  While I was writing, Rich and I were playing more Fate of the World, which is one TOUGH game.  It actually frustrated both of us, so we started playing Galactic Civilization II.  Much easier on the stress level than watching the world explode under your watch over and over.

This morning, Rich and the boys let me sleep int until 8:30.  Rich said Teddy's been a little warm, but that was it.  He gave him some tylenol and ibuprofen, just to be on the safe side.  Turns out he was lucky he did (more about that later).

When I came downstairs, I decided it was time to tackle the piles of laundry that needed folding.  Three bins later, I was finished.  Rich brought the bins upstairs for me, and I just need to put them away (which I haven't done yet, bad me).  Got another load of laundry into the washer so there was progress there.

While Rich and the boys were at church, I had planned on playing a little solo Gal Civ.  Instead, I started working on a character for a play by post game by the creators of one my favorite past play by post games (Tazlure's creators, for those curious).  It's a steampunk game and we're currently getting ready for a play test.  I'm still working through my character, but I'd say that I'm about 75% done before showing it to the mods.  I got stuck on something I wanted to talk out with Rich, so I switched to work on another swap - the Book Log swap. The original swap was to send a list of all the books we've read within the last 15 years, plus a second list of the books or series that we wanted to read.  For those of us that read a lot, it would have been a HUGE e-mail, so the coordinator of the swap said we could do favorites, or the last couple of years or something of that nature.  I chose to list the books that I've read since October - all 60 plus of them.  I included links back to my blog here so they could get reviews if they wanted.  Then I listed 15 books and series that I have on my need to read someday list.  I left off the ones that I have at home, because they are ones that I know I'll be reading.

Rich called after church to make sure I was ready to go out for lunch.  We hit Shoney's - which was incredibly packed.  I mean, it's packed on Sundays because of the after church crowd anyway, but this... this was insane!  We didn't have to wait too long at all for a table, though, so that was a plus.  The food was pretty good (as usual) and Rich and I spent some of the time getting our menu together for the week's suppers so we could put our grocery list together.  Grocery shopping afterwards was it's usual joy, fun and excitement thanks to Peter deciding to run all over the store and Rich finally putting him in the cart and me buckling him in.  For almost the rest of the time through the store, Pete screamed and cried.  Oh, to be a 2 year old and have the whole world resting on your shoulders!

We got home and picked up the mail from yesterday, only to find a letter from Unemployment saying that I had been denied because I hadn't worked enough in the past 5 quarters.  Which, since I've been unemployed for over a year, is a no duh.  I'm supposed to be on extended benefits.  So tomorrow, I'll be making a phone call to find out what's going on.  I'm hoping that it's just something that got sent out from the first thing the guy that helped me get onto extended benefits tried.  But I'll find out tomorrow.

I finally got around to putting together the bookcase that I bought for my crafting stuff. It fits nicely in the dining room, which is where I do most of my crafting anyway.  While I was finishing it, we got a phone call from Teddy's doctor - he's got strep.  When we took him on Thursday, the quick test said no but the longer test came back positive.  The doctor was pretty surprised because his throat didn't look that bad.  But we needed to get him on antibiotics as soon as possible.  She called in a script for amoxicillin to the Walgreens down the street from us (since our usual pharmacy at the university wasn't open).  I took a run down there to pick up not only the medicine but new toothbrushes so Teddy wouldn't reinfect himself (and I needed to get a new one for Pete because he needs whatever his brother has).

I came home to Rich getting ready to make dinner - leftover roast beef gyros.  Teddy didn't have any - or anything else for that matter since he'd gotten sick again, and Pete ate a little pita and meat.  I had two gyros.  They were fantastic (but as I said above, my husband is a fantastic cook!)

I'm not sure what the rest of the night has in store.  I need to get more of the book reviews finished since I've got my 1st quarter book log swap due by April 4.  So I might work on that while Rich is playing Gal Civ (thanks to 2 computers).  I may try to do Swap-Bot Saturday or Silent Sunday (but probably not).  I may start trying to migrate and organize the things for my new crafting book shelf. I may fold more laundry.  It's still too early to tell.

Tomorrow's going to be a homebound day.  The doctor told us that Teddy will still be considered contagious until he's been on the amoxicillin for 24 hours.  But I've got lots of things I can do around the house.  Hopefully my boys will help me but even if they don't.... I'm determined to do what needs to be done and not let myself be sucked into the evil that is my online world.  (Ok, not EVIL, but definitely not productive to getting things done offline!)

Blogger's United Challenge #2

Oh dear! Your on death row! 

(don't worry....... your totally not guilty and the governor is going to call to stop it before it happens).

What is your last ever meal and why?

If this question had been asked two years ago, my entrée would have been a no-brainer.  My step-mom's fried chicken.  She had a way of making it super crispy and incredibly yummy.  But since she passed away, no one can do it quite right.  So now I need to think of something else.

I think I'd like a combination of all my favorites, in little bites.  Here's the menu:

First would be shuimai fromThe Real Le Ahn's Lunch Truck on the University of Philadelphia's campus.  When my husband and I were living in Philly, this was a common place for us to grab something to eat. It was the first place I ever tried shuimai and it was wonderful.  When I had my back surgery and was stuck at home, Le Ahn regularly had a shuimai and a bubble tea waiting for my husband to bring home to me.  I'd want to revisit that memory before leaving this earth.

Next would be cheese fondue from The Melting Pot.  This is one of my favorite restaurants of all time.  Because of the price, I don't get a chance to go more than once a year.  But it's so decadent that I'd need to have it one more time.  

Next up would be sushi from Morimoto in Philadelphia.  It's the absolute best sushi I've ever had. Pricey, yes, but good.  Very, very, very good. Tamago (or egg) sushi is my favorite, so that would have to be on there.  And Unagi (or eel) sushi would be my second favorite. 

To drink, I'd have Bubble Tea from Bubble House in Philadelphia.  The reviews of late haven't been as good, but I hold out eternal hope that they'll make me a good Mango Bubble Tea for my last meal. 

My dessert would be two things, both more personal than getting something from a restaurant.  The first would be a small slice of cheesecake made by my friend Zac.  He makes the most amazing cheesecake and I'd give just about anything for a piece.   

Finally, I'd want crème brulée made by my husband.  He's never made it before, but I know he'd be willing to make it to make me happy.

That would be the most awesome meal ever.