Jan 7 - Shepherds Pie and Irish Soda Bread

Day 7

Cook:  Me

Meal:  Shepherds Pie and Irish Soda Bread

First came the Soda Bread:

Super simple to make and extremely pleased with how quickly it got gobbled up!  I will surely be making this again.

Now onto the Pie!

Cutting potatoes!

Cutting carrots!

Cutting celery!

Green onions!

Brown that meat.. you should probably use a deeper pan.. lol

Add the green onions and garlic that I never mentioned!

All all the colorful veggies that you chopped up!

Cup of peas!  Chicken Broth!  Cream of mushroom!

Stir, thicken, bask in your cooking glory!

Still thickening!  Thicker = awesomer!

Mashed potatoes!

 Spread the mash on the bottom of pie plates.

 Fill with the awesome glory you made on the stovetop earlier.

Cover with more mash.

 Make enough mash to cover the pies better than this!

 

Stick under the broiler, til the mash gets brown and a little crispy.

Scoop and eat!  NOMNOMNOM

Jan 6

Day 6

Cook: Wife

Meal.. can't remember, I'll ask her and update.

EDIT:  She made meatball subs!  Oh man they were good.

Jan 5

Day 5

Cook: Me

I think I made spaghetti this day, with garlic bread.  No photos.. deal with it.

Jan 4

Day 4

Think this is the day that my wife made a chicken pasta casserole.. no pictures, sorry, too busy eating.

Jan 3rd - Chili and Sweet Cornbread Muffins

Day 3

Cook:  Me

Meal:  Chili and Sweet Cornbread Muffins

I've made chili before, and I've made cornbread before, so this wasn't too out of the ordinary, but damn, it was good.  I make good shit.

My Cooking assistant:

Ingredients for the chili

Brown the meat:

Green onions in the meat!  NOMNOM 

Add all the other stuff and heat it up.

Cornbread!  Mix the dry...

Mix the wet...

Get the wet and dry sloppy together!

 Pour that into muffin cups..

Bake it, eat it.. don't be busy taking pictures.

Jan 2 Dinner

Day 2 of challenge

Cook: Wife

Dinner:  Turkey burgers with fries and salad

She makes the patties herself, and damn they're good.  Juicy as hell.  Shes making bacon to go on them, swiss cheese, seasoned the patties, fries.  Nice and simple, and delicious.

Jan 1st Dinner

Day 1 of the challenge.

Cook:  Me

Dinner:  Parmesan Chicken Bake over pasta, with garlic bread and a salad on the side.

Difficulty: EASY

Pour jar of sauce in a casserole dish, mix with 1/2 cup parmesan cheese.
Lay chicken breasts in, and flip them around until they're all coated.

Bake at 375 til all cooked (about 30 min).  Cover with more parmesan cheese, cook 5 more mins until cheese melted.

Serve over pasta, with garlic bread and salad.


We're lazy.

Introduction of the challenge!

First off, I'll start by saying that it has surely been awhile since I've posted anything here.  But now I've got something new that my family is trying.

No eating out for one month.

My wife found some site where a family did this, so we thought we'd try it ourselves!  It is going to be hard, we know this.  But we think we can do it, and dammit, we need to do it lol.

So as to our rules:

No eating out for one month.

My wife and I alternate cooking.  I cook on odd days, she cooks on even days.

We started this with the new year (Jan 1, 2012)

This goes for all meals.

So, I have to make a post talking about my first cooking day:  Jan 1st!  (I know this is Jan 2, so I'm posting a few things today, lol)

Cats

Last Friday, I did manage to take Liz to the play CATS.. but I'll post about that tomorrow hopefully.. lol

The week of busy!

So this week has been a long and intense week for my wife and I.  This is probably why I haven't been posting anything on the blog.

SUNDAY
Sunday consisted of my wife having to leave town overnight for work.  So me, with the three kids went to my moms for easter dinner (yay, didn't have to cook.. and it was good!).  Afterwards, come home, get them ready for bed, showers, etc.

MONDAY
Monday my wife returned, and didn't have much to do.. so in retrospect, it was the calm before the storm.  Isabelle however had talked to her friend on the phone to arrange a playdate after school on Wednesday.  OK, cool.. thats fine.  Then Liz wanted to arrange a playdate with her friend as well.  Ok, Belle was going to her friends' house, Liz could invite Nycole over here.

TUESDAY
School, then soccer practice afterwards.  My mother calls to remind me of the birthday dinner for my grandmother, and asks how many of us are coming?  All 4 of us, I say.  OK, so now, at 5:30pm on Wednesday, we get to go out to dinner at this cool family style italian joint that we've never been to... nomnomnom

Oh shit.. 5:30?  Belle wont be home till 5pm from her friends house.. and Nycoles mom is supposed to come get her at 5pm... hmm.. we can still do it.. it might be tight tho.

So after school, the kids are going to spend the afternoon with their friends, then we.... OH SHIT!  Wait!  My wife's cousins are in town from EUROPE!  We had made previous arrangements to get our kids and them all together to play and see each other after school on Wednesday!  DAMMIT...  what are we going to do now?

Wife makes some calls... about 5 calls later, we've adjusted the plans.  Wednesday, the girls will have their respective playdates, we moved the playdate with the European cousins to Thursday, and we can still tightly make the birthday dinner for my grandmother...  whew...

Wait.. whats this?  Liz has decided to do some outrageous crap in which she basically chooses to spend the afternoon by herself with no playdate as a punishment.  So now I call Nycole's mom to inform her of Liz's decisions.. I leave the voicemail, hope she gets it.

WEDNESDAY
Today will be decent, since Liz has chosen she doesn't want a playdate today.  Belle will be at her friends till 5pm, then we go to dinner, then home.  Tomorrow, we get to look forward to the kids' Spring Play titled 'Go Fish'!  Oh man, these are so fun!  Waitaminit...  Thursday is soccer practice.  Fuck.  My wife informs me that she just remembered that Thursday is also her Bunco night.  Double fuck.

Well, my mother-in-law is going to come get the girls at school to take them to the new playdate with the cousins from Europe.  She will have them back by 5ish?  Then we gotta do dinner, and get the girls dressed in their new dresses (which my wife managed to find time earlier in the week to go shopping with them and let them pick out the dresses.. damn my wife is amazing).  And have them to the play by 630pm.  Doable.. but what about soccer practice and bunco?  Those get cancelled...

THURSDAY
Thursday pretty much goes as planned.  Kids play with the cousins, we get a quick dinner then go to the play.  Get home late, and proceed to go to bed.




FRIDAY
Last night... well fuck the week, my wife and I went to a Euromart we'd never been to, picked up a chocolate cake and said 'fuck you' to the world, and relaxed.  We deserved it.  :D

Judgement Day : Skynet has failed us!

This morning at work, a co-worker informed me of the fact that last night was in fact Judgement Day.  The day that Skynet became self-aware.  My intital thought was 'bullshit, we've already passed that day'.  I distinctly remember the easter egg from the Terminator 2 Special Edition DVD in which you get to watch an even LONGER version of the movie.. longer than the already included LONG directors cut version on the DVD.  The code is "82997".  This is the date of Judgement Day, August 29, 1997. (08-29-97).  Knowing this, I need to look it up.

And here is where movie lore gets messed up.

According to T2: Judgement Day, the first mention of the date for Judgement Day is August 29, 1997.  2:14 am eastern time, to be exact.  In Terminator 3, on the DVD, there is a timline which states the date is in 2003.  In the TV show, it is said that the date is April 29th, 2011.

So, we have already passed several Judgment Days.  I can't wait for Google.. err.. Skynet to become self-aware and start the war.

Toxic Skies: Toxic Eyes

So, I work for a local TV news station.  The first part of my day, I am the director for the morning news program.  This is a 90 minute show, and we get bored sometimes..  So yesterday, I started browsing Netflix instant stream movies.  Not to watch while at work, mind you.. but just to queue up things for later.

I always get a kick out of the 'similar titles' part when you add something to Instant Queue.  Yesterday, I start finding a bunch of zombie flicks.  According to Netflix, Toxic Skies was a similar pick to something I had added.

I'm here to tell you that it is NOT similar.

Admittedly, I skimmed the description, which said something about chemical weapons, chemtrails, government coverups.. but what caught my eye was that it was set in the city of Spokane, WA.  I used to live in Spokane years ago, and have been known to pop up there on occasion in recent years, but otherwise, I hate that town.  And if I could bear witness to a flick that turns my former town into a bunch of chemically induced psychopathic zombies?  Oh hell yea.. wheres the fucking popcorn?!

Instead, what I watched was a story about a doctor (Anne Heche) who sees a crapload of people come into the hospital with marks all over them, wounds of some sort.  She proceeds to diagnose, more show up, blah blah.  Fast forward 45 minutes, shes hooked up with some dude who is telling her that the government is deploying chemical weapons to the people via chemtrails.

You know those lines that follow planes in the skies? When I was a kid, my dad told me that the planes were up there making new clouds.  You gotta love dad stories!  Anyways, those are contrails.  There are conspiracy theorists that maintain that the government is using those as a form of cropdusting.  That is where chemtrails comes in.

So thats what this flick is about.  Doctor stumbles upon what might or might not be a conspiracy to dope the countryside.

There are some interesting theories in the movie as to why the government might be doing this, but otherwise, it was a dull flick.