2009 Year in Review, for the Not Easily Offended

January 2009

*I hosted a kid-friendly New Year's brunch where we counted down to Noon instead of Midnight.

*My father-in-law turned 60 and a mess of in-laws came to town.

* I hosted over 50 people here for Super Bowl.

*The United States, in a moment of clarity, voted out the worst President we have ever had.

*The United States elected our first black man for President.

*I started this resolution of posting weekly less than 30 minutes Weight Watchers recipes. I lost interest in that though.

*Jake couldn't find his pacifier so he sucked on a dirty sock instead and feel asleep in his car seat.

Febuary 2009

*Jake becomes obsessed with wearing rain boots and biting. At one point he bit me on my ass and bit Erik's nuts. Ouch!!

*A blog post I wrote about Chandra Levy was published in an online newspaper.

*Everyone got the stomach bug and I ended up in the E.R. getting I.V. fluids. Jake also got a double ear infection and croup. Nobody was healthy for about 6 weeks, it sucked!!!!

*Since our Valentine's Day was spent cleaning up barf, Erik and I had a Valentine's Day date on President's Day weekend. Massages and dinner, very nice.

*I wrote a really nice post about my sister-in-law Auntie M. for her birthday. I love her.

*That crazy bitch Nadya Suleman gives birth to octuplets.

Ok these are just the first 2 months because I need to drag my fat butt to the gym. I will finish this up during the course of the next week. Erik is oncall New Year's Eve, New Year's Day, Jan. 2nd and Jan. 3rd, so I will have time to write.

Auntie M.'s Packing Fudge

Ok not really but I just love to good naturedly harass her. This fudge is amazing! Even though I love chocolate I don't particularly like fudge. But this fudge was amazing! And it had walnuts in it and I don't even like walnuts and I still ate it.



Next....FUDGE*

One bag of chocolate chips
3/4 bag of Butterscotch chips
One can of Sweetened Condensed Milk
One teaspoon of Vanilla
Walnuts or currants as desired...really whatever you want to add

Grease a casserole dish- sometimes I put it in a jello mold to make it into a wreath shape

Heat up the pot over low heat
Add chocolate chips, butterscotch, and sweetened milk
Mix together until melted and blended
Add vanilla and whatever else you want to such as walnuts
Pour right away into greased dish- will start to set immediately. Chill in fridge or in the freezer.
*Recipe written by Auntie M.

Auntie M.'s Chinese/Aisan Chicken Salad

Chinese (ish) Chicken Salad*

Top Ramen noodles- 1 package crunched up
Spanish Peanuts- approx. 1 cup
green onions chopped
Red Bell Pepper- choppped
Cole Slaw Salad- precut in the package
Italian dressing
Chicken- I buy the chicken that is already grilled and cut. You could grill it yourself and then cut it when cool. Probably tastes better, but sometimes I am not that motivated. Make sure you cut into bite sized pieces.

Add all of the dry ingredients and then mix with Italian dressing. Sounds weird, but is always a hit.

*All of the above has been written by Auntie M. and we are grateful.

**Let's see if Auntie M. notices the tags

Grandma Estelle's Brisket

Grandma Estelle is my husband and Auntie M.'s grandmother. This is the recipe for her rockin' brisket. This is super easy, I promise:

1 packet onion soup mix (Safeway brand uses no MSG)
1 14 oz. can whole berry cranberry sauce
1 cup ketchup
1 can cola (coke or Pepsi and last night I used diet Dr. Pepper because that's all I had)
4-6 lb.beef brisket
A crock-pot with a 4,6,8 or 10 hour setting, the low or high settings just don't cut it.

**The night before cooking, shove brisket into pot, sprinkle onion soup mix all over the top. Open can of cranberry and dump on top. Measure out cup of ketchup and pour on top of brisket. Open can of soda and pour all over everything. Put just the ceramic pot insert into fridge overnight. In the morning pop ceramic pot insert back into crock pot element and set for 10 hours. Walk away. Go to work and flip the brisket when you get home from work. Or flip it every 4 hours or so. Whatever is convenient.

You can serve it right from the pot onto a plate or you can take out the brisket and let the gravy bubble some more in the crockpot and try to slice the brisket. But by this point the brisket is falling apart and doesn't really slice all pretty but still tastes awesome.

Last night I made a 4.5 lb. brisket for 10 adults 15 kids and there were leftovers.

**You can do this right before you cook it. The brisket does not need to marinade. But I am not a morning person and if you want this done by 5:30p it's going to have to start at 7:30a and I have other stuff to do at that hour.

Makes great sandwiches the next day that make you either want to take a big nap or hit the gym.

Yvette's Chicken Pot Pie

As the year ends I will be on a recipe posting frenzy. I want to load all of those fattening, and oh so tasty recipes before I have to get back on the diet wagon. January I will be posting mostly Weight Watchers recipes because in Feburary I am going on a cruise!!. Below is from my friend Yvette G.

Chicken Pot Pie

Chicken Pot Pie Prep: 40 min; Bake: 35 min

Make putting this all-time favorite together a snap by purchasing a ready-to-use pie crust.
1 (10-ounce) package frozen peas and carrots
1/3 cup butter or stick margarine
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup chopped onions
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 3/4 cups chicken broth - I use homemade stock or leftover turkey stock from Thanksgiving.
2/3 cup milk
2 1/2 to 3 cups cut-up cooked chicken or turkey - Rotisserie from Costco or Safeway, or leftover turkey from Thanksgiving
Pastry for 9-inch Two-Crust Pie (see recipe) - Pillsbury Pie Crust from refrigerated aisle

1. Rinse frozen peas and carrots in cold water to separate; drain.
2. Melt butter in 2-quart saucepan over medium heat. Stir in flour, onion, salt and pepper. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture is bubbly; remove from heat. Stir in broth and milk. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 minute. Stir in chicken and peas and carrots; remove from heat.
3. Heat oven to 425°. 4. Make pastry. Roll two-thirds of the pastry into 13-inch square. Ease into ungreased square pan, 9 ¥ 9 ¥ 2 inches. Pour chicken mixture into pastry-lined pan.
5. Roll remaining pastry into 11-inch square. Cut out designs with 1-inch cookie cutter.Or shape excess dough into a penis like I did recently for some dear friends.
Place square over chicken mixture. Arrange cutouts on pastry. Turn edges of pastry under and flute.
* I use a standard pie plate.
6. Bake about 35 minutes or until golden brown.

NUTRITION FACTS: 1 Serving (about 1 cup):; Calories 685 (Calories from Fat 425); Fat 47g (Saturated 16g); Cholesterol 80mg; Sodium 1,050mg; Carbohydrate 44g (Dietary Fiber 3g); Protein 24g % DAILY VALUE:; Vitamin A 48%; Vitamin C 4%; Calcium 6%; Iron 20% DIET EXCHANGES:; 2 Starch; 2 Medium-Fat Meat; 3 Vegetable; 6 Fat .

This Scene Always Cracks Me Up

The Blessed Holidays

Damn this whole parenting gig is getting in the way of my blogging. Not to mention my quality of sleep, social life and mental health. But they are cute kids, and I have decided to keep them.

I apologize to my handful of readers for falling off the face of the blogosphere but once your youngest child gives up naps your life becomes even busier. Now that my holiday season is over I will try to find some more time for writing.

In my house we celebrate Hanukkah and it's already over. So now I can sit back and watch my friends who celebrate Christmas run around like maniacs, just like I was doing last week. And since my husband will be on-call New Year's Eve, New Year's Day AND January 2nd and 3rd, this is really the end of my holidays. But I am not going to start dieting until January, I have too many leftovers and treats to finish off.

I was going to hit the gym today, especially since my breakfast consisted of a turkey, cranberry and gravy sandwich with a side order of fudge. But after his soccer game my strong-willed 5 year old refused to go to the gym. Now usually I would have forcibly changed him out of his soccer uniform, strapped him into the van and told him that if his behavior gets me called out of my work-out then he will get no t.v. for 24 hours. But we had 32 people here last night and all three of my kids were up until 9:30pm. I know he is legitimately tired and that I shouldn't push my luck. So I sacrificed my work-out to stay home with him, and my husband took the other monkeys to the gym. I have more time during the week to work-out than my husband does so it's only fair.

In the last month since I have last blogged this is what has been going on:

*Auntie M had that jewelry party at her house and it was fun and I bought some pretty jewelry including a custom made necklace for my Mom, which I ordered behind her back as a gift.

*We hosted my mother-in-law's birthday here at my house and a Thanksgiving, and also had Thanksgiving at my Dad's in Sacramento. And Mike stepped in dog poop at my Dad's house. Without fail, when we go to a party, either my sons or my husband will step in dog poop. I just don't get it. I have stepped in dog poop maybe 3 times in my whole life, and so far my daughter has never stepped in dog poop!!

*We celebrated my daughter's birthday, our office manager's birthday, my birthday and my sister-in-law Amanda's birthday. The cutest girl in the world turned 4 years old and partied at Chuck E. Cheese. I got a mani/pedi and went to a Raiders game with my husband.

*My N.E.O. Mom's Club went out for a 1 year anniversary fondue dinner. And we roped a pregnant club member into being our designated driver.

* Went to the hospital Christmas party with my husband. Mostly a snooze fest but not as boring as past parties.

*And last week was totally insane. Hanukkah party, got new blinds installed, carpets cleaned, finished off gift shopping, our business practice's lunch, brought donuts and read a Hanukkah story to my 5 year old and my 3 year old's classroom, got up early Friday morning and made latkes for preschool party, and then Saturday (yesterday) I hosted 32 people at my house for a Hanukkah/Xmas party.

*And today my house is a disaster zone. I got the kitchen put back together and 3 loads of laundry done but the rest of the house is a mess, and we are over capacity for both the recycling and the garbage can. I gotta sneak some trash into our neighbor's cans.


A little gossip about last night. A step-nephew I haven't seen in awhile showed up with tattoos on his face and a pregnant girlfriend. Sigh. I only hope the best for them, of course, and the baby is going to be gorgeous, no doubt about that. It's just hard to wrap my brain around the fact that my step-brother is going to be a grandfather when he also has a 7 year old daughter and he is only a few years older than I am!

My kids actually have school Monday and Tuesday of this week even though the public schools don't. I am totally cool with that! Wednesday I am hosting a small cookie decorating party here at my house. Thursday will probably be movies and Chinese food, a Jewish Christmas tradition but Christmas day we have been invited to hang out with my brother-in-law's giant family.

Happy Holidays everyone!!!!!