Valentine's Dinner

T and I decided yo celebrate V-Day tonight. We;re sending Boo to grandma and grandpa's for a few hours. We're doing dinner at home. We're going to have Tri-color Farfalle with Basil Merlot Pasta Sauce. This will be served with Bratwurst (we don't have italian sausage...lol). I've got some Asiago Garlic bread and dipping oil as well. We have White Merlot Wine and Rose Table Wine (the one from the previous post).

I already made my pasta sauce. I'm letting it sit hoping that it will help to bring out the flavors. I think it's mighty good myself. I got the idea from a pasta sauce at the grocery store. It was called "Napa Valley Zinfandel." After perusing the ingredients label on the back I thought...hmmm...piece of cake. So, today I made my own sauce. I substituted White Merlot for the Zinfandel. I've never had White Merlot before. Well, I did today because I had to taste some when I made my sauce of course. It's good. I could see how it's great for a pasta sauce actually. It adds a touch of sweetness to it without having to add sugar.

Here's what I did for my sauce (very rough translation):

Saute diced onion (one) and minced garlic (oh - I don't know, maybe six or seven cloves). Add canned diced tomatoes (2 cans -mine had basil, garlic, and onion). Throw it in a food processor and puree the hell out of it. I would've left it chunkier if it was just me, but T doesn't like chunks in his food. Taste it. Mmmmm....yummy. Add fresh basil (half a package). I would've added a whole package probably, but I'm saving some to use with those store-bought pizza crusts. Add a bit of fresh parsley (not a whole lot, didn't want to overpower it). Add a tube of tomato paste. If it was just me I would've added less. T likes the rich tomato pastey flavor. Add wine. Several splashes. Sip wine. Mmmm...poor mug of wine. Puree the hell out of the sauce again. Taste. Add more wine to sauce. Puree. Drink wine. Taste sauce. Well, you get the idea.

Anyways, this sauce turned out delicious. Funny this is I remember feeling like I didn't want to pay $6 for a jar of pasta sauce at the store, but when I think through the ingredients did I really save money making it? Nope. I think I spent more...but now I have a bottle of wine and the feeling of a job well done with my sauce.

I would like to have some sort of dessert but haven't figured that part out yet. Oh well...it's still early in the day. I'm glad I got the sauce done now though. All I'll have to do is heat it back up in the sauce pan and tweak it if need be.

You know, this is going to be our first date with Boo gone. Wow. Maybe I'll break out the china.

Thrifting The Year Away

I have a new blog. It's called "Thrifting The Year Away." I'm not going to explain it here because I explained it in the first post. Check it out. I'll probably redesign it at some point, but I'm too tired for that now.

Enjoying My Tea

Right now I'm sitting here enjoying the quiet and my tea. Mmmm...a nice cup of Rooibus tea. Yummy! I've forever debated whether I like coffee or tea best and I think I've decided finally. The answer is definitely tea. There's something in a nice cup of hot tea that is just soothing to the soul. Does anyone else feel this way? And wine...that's soul-soothing too. I'm not saying I don't like my cup of joe, but soul-soothing it's not. Tasty, warm, and comfortable it is, but soothing is reserved for tea and wine.

I tasted a new wine today. It's Menage a Trois California Rose Table Wine v.2005. Now, most people who know about my wine taste know that I don't do sweet wines. However, I bought this for a recipe and of course had to try some. And honestly, I was pleasantly suprised. It's definitely sweet and fruity, very up front about it's taste...not bashful in the laste. Grapefruit...full of yummy grapefruit. That was the impression it left me with. I could imagine sipping this on a hot summer day, perhaps mixed with crushed ice and an orange slice. It was actually very nice. Too bad it's not a nice summer day. It's a crummy winter day and it's currently 25 degrees outside. Brrrr!

I start work in 11 days and it's lit a fire under my butt to get this place in order. I've actually made decent progress today. I've folded three loads of laundry. I've packed away "paperback swap" books into a bin to be stored until they've found a new home to be loved. I've gone through several stacks of paper and am working my way through several years worth of paper mess that either needs to be shredded or filed (I'm not exaggerating when I say several years). We have boxes of papers that have moved with us to several different locations. No more! The buck stops here!

Oh...the dryer just buzzed. I've also been washing diapers. Score for me for being productive today. We also went to Prompt Care and got Boo drops for his eyes. Yes, Boo has pink eye again. I don't understand it. We're very anti-social. We never go on out. This isn't really on purpose...it just is. So anyways, I have no clue how he got this. Poor little guy. He woke up from nap today with his eye crusted shut.

The other thing that I must brag about is that I've been much more disciplined in getting Boo to nap throughout the day. It just took me being a little more proactive and really watching for those "I'm tired" signs. He goes out like a light though with a bit of side nursing in bed. Then I'm able to do what I need to do or dork around on the internet a bit. I'm afraid I indulge in the internet a bit too much. I tend to "window shop" on the internet. Does anyone else do this?

Well, I think I'm going to do some more of my dorking around in order to reward myself for a job well done!

I have a JOB

Well, the impossible has happened. I finally have a job...yes in the middle of this cornfield town. I'm working as a case manager for an agency that coordinates services for medically fragile adults. It will be good though because I'll be about five minutes from Boo no matter where he's at. I'll be able to go home and feed him during lunch...that sort of thing.

So now I'm on a mission to get this house organized before going to work. I haven't put much effort into organizing since we moved. Part of that is because I didn't know if I would find a job and I didn't want to put tons of effort into organizing this place if we were just going to have to move again. So now I've decided that everything must have a place before I go back to work. I'm a little nervous about being able to stay on top of things once I rejoin the working world. But I guess I have to be okay with the fact that I won't. Some things will slip and that's inevitable.

Climbing Mount Everest and Folding Dirty Laundry

Well, so far today has been a mixed bag. I've been so proud of myself for working on laundry today and actually getting stuff done (I'm glad you can't see through this screen to the rest of the house). Anyways, yesterday I carried a basket up from downstairs that appeared to be clean laundry. I mean, it was sitting in front of the dryer which is where I always put the basket for clean laundry. So I assumed it was laundry that had been emptied out of the dryer. Boo was fussing so I brought him over and sat him in his bumbo next to me while I folded laundry. After folding several items I came across one that looked like it had stuff on it. Hmmm....one whiff told me what I feared. That item was dirty. That led me to my next conclusion. The entire basket was dirty laundry. Just when I was proud of myself for being productive. Oh bother.

I did have an accomplishment to offset the folding of the dirty laundry. I managed to climb Mt. Everest. Okay - not really. I put my child to sleep, but some days that feels like Mt. Everest. Boo is notorious for waking the moment I try to lay him down. Agh!!! But today he cooperated with me. Mission accomplished!

Safe Cosmetics

I just wanted to share a website I found.

Safe Cosmetics

Taken straight from their website:

"The companies listed above have pledged to not use chemicals that are known or strongly suspected of causing cancer, mutation or birth defects in their products and to implement substitution plans that replace hazardous materials with safer alternatives in every market they serve."

I'm trying so hard to switch over to safer choices in our home, but it can be more expensive. I can't afford to throw away practically all of our products, so my strategy is to use them up and replace them with safer alternatives as I'm able. The only exception is that I'm considering tossing all of my lead-tainted lipsticks.

One big change that I made last year was to start using homemade cleaner. Here's the recipe that I use for a good general cleaner.

Equal parts vinegar and water
Tea tree essential oil (it has antimicrobial and antifungal properties)
Lavendar essental oil
Tangerine essental oil

I love this recipe. It does a fantastic job of cutting grease in the kitchen. Sorry Clorox - you're no longer needed or wanted. Oh, and by the way, this is so much cheaper than having to buy a commercially prepared cleaning product.

Goblin King Goblin King, Take This Child Far From Me

Okay, not really. But wow. We were supposed to run errands today. It's 2:00 pm and we have yet to make it out the door. I've been trying to prepare to leave since like 11:00am. A is teething and I think he must be feeling really crummy today. All I need is to put him down long enough to wrap up some books for paperback swap. Then we can head out the door. I know he'll fall asleep once the car gets going. He hasn't been able to sleep all day. I even gave him some Motrin. *sigh* the joys of motherhood. Poor little guy. Teething must suck.