Follow Directions

HAve you ever wondered what would you happen if you didn't follow a direction when cooking?  I have unfortunately learned the hard way many times to know to follow the directions.  H
Rewind to last week when I was making Jello Pretzel dessert for a very dear friend of ours.  I woke up extra early to make it because Jello Pretzel dessert can be thrown together before work, right?  Um, yeah, no, this takes a little longer to take mainly because you're sitting around waiting.  I love this recipe, but make sure you follow her directions.  She's even nice enough to explain why but I thought I could rush it a little.  So, I'm sharing my mistake with you so that you don't make this same mistake and ruin this fabulous dessert.  When she says to wait until the jello sets so that it won't run into your pretzels and make them soggy and well, gross, she's serious.  I didn't wait.  I'm currently eating soggy jello pretzel dessert and my friend got a bottle of gin.  He still didn't make out too bad.

Puttanesca Sauce

V and I are huge kalamata olive lovers.  Noodle also shares this love. I saw this recipe in one of my favorite cookbooks, Rao's Neighborhood, for Puttanesca sauce.  It has olives, capers, tomatoes, anchovies, and garlic!  As it turns out, while this dish is extremely photogenic...it's not so tasty.  I followed the recipe to a T..but it was just not for us.  The anchovy taste was too overpowering for us.

Bucket List--Try Thai Food

What's not to like, right? V and I love ethnic food.  We do not like Thai food..I'm not sure if it was the flavor, the over saltiness of it...or it could be the horrendous food poisoing we got as a result of it!!  V and I were sick the rest of the night into the next day!   I had hot and spicy shrimp soup which was wayyy too hot for me..I could only eat the broth and not even 1/4 of that and our Pad Thai was more salty and soy saucy than anything.  We gave it an honest try.  So, maybe Thai food is not for us. 
As a result of this, I have decided to alter my bucket list.  I no longer care to learn how to make Thai food so this will be changed soon when I figure out something to go in this place. 
It's really a shame, I really thought I'd love thai food...guess I can get rid of that cookbook...

Sleeping babes

Taking pictures of my son sleeping may be one of my favorite things, ever.

Pass the Disinfectant!!!

This house has been hit by the stomach bug...I'll be back when the Lysol kicks in!

Remembering your past and enjoying your present

My past..my great-grandmother, Grammer

My present..my two loves..Noodle and V

Money Surprises

There is nothing like money surprises!  I.LOVE.THEM...although, I think that's like saying I like ice cream or Parfaits..have you ever met anyone who doesn't like parfaits? 

But really, I do love them!

We recieved our W-2's last week and, lo and behold, there was a dependant care benefit listed on V's..hmm...I don't remember signing up for that...V didn't remember signing up for that and we definitely didn't use it.  So, after a phone call to his company revealed that my beautiful, thoughful, albeit forgetful husband had been having money taken out of every paycheck for the last year to go towards our Day care expenses.  And we hadn't touched a single dollar.  And with a 90 day grace period, we were able to use the money so we got reimbursed for alot of last year's day care expenses. 

V is no longer with that company so that benefit is gone but my company offers the same program only they mail the checks directly to the day care and the money is taken out pretaxes so this will also help our taxes. 

So, if you have the opportunity to check out these programs...check and see if your company offers them...pretty convenient!!!!! 

Do you use any of these plans? 

Now if only I can find out that we won the lottery and hadn't cashed that ticket in yet....