Country-style Ribs and Rice

I bought country-style ribs at Sam's because they were relatively cheap, but I didn't know what to do with them. I went on foodnetwork.com and found a recipe from Paula Dean, and read the reviews, which were mixed, and decided to try it, implementing the suggestions in the reviews. It turned out ok, not very flavorful though. Scott didn't like it at all, and neither did the kids. I liked it alright, but I think for nastalgic reasons. It reminded me of an old South meal my grandma would have made; warm, filling, and cheap, comfort-type food.
So, needless to say I had alot of left over meat and rice. I dumped the rice down the garbage disposal, cleaned the fat off the meat, and made a great soup. Here's my concoction:

1 onion chopped
2 cloves garlic pressed
2 cans crushed tomatoes
1 can white cannelini beans, drained
1 large carrot shredded
1/2 cup spinach puree
1 cup squash and zuchini chopped that I found in the freezer, we had grilled them back in the summer, so they added great flavor.
pepper
italian seasoning
salt
2 bayleaves
leftover meat, to desired meatiness

Simmer for a little while and enjoy.

Soups are a great quick and easy go to if you have some pantry staples and leftovers on hand. I think soup is one of the few redeeming things of winter. That and snowboarding!

Trick-r-treat

Here's Reece and Alli all ready to go trick-r-treating. Reece is Lego Indiana Jones, and Alli is Lego Asoka (from StarWars the CloneWars). I've found I can make anything with Duct Tape, boxes, a paper sack, and spray paint! You can go to Scott's site for more pictures.

Las Vegas

I went to Las Vegas with Scott in July. His company was having a trade show there. We stayed at the Paris. The whole experience was surreal. You get off the plane and are immediately bombarded with slot machines, right there at the gate! And then as you move through the concourse, the ads for all the nudey shows! We got to the Paris, and it's all fake like Disney World for grown ups. It's hot as hades there in July, kind of ironic considering all the sinning going on there! And it's so dry, I was in chronic thirst, also hades-like. All I did for the few days we were there is lay by the pool and read. This pic is the view from my chair at the pool.
The view from the window in our room. Looks majestic and relaxing! HA! Not! I have a hard time putting into words the spiritual oppression I felt there. On the flight in I was taking in the Grand Canyon and seeing all the glorious colors of the desert, and there are small mountains all around the city, really an artwork of God out there. But the city is designed to make you forget about God. All you can see from the street is man-made buildings, fountains and lights, all designed to distract you away from God and lure you in to the temptations beyond thier doors.
To top it all off, the food wasn't even that great. Except for the dinner we had at the hotel convention center. We had steak, some kind of potato gratin, and asparagus, a great salad, and creme brulee for dessert. It was all cooked to perfection, I could cut my steak with a fork!

HFCS Rant

Have you seen the recent commercials promoting high fructose corn syrup?



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEbRxTOyGf0



I am offended that they make those of us concerned about the health of our family diets and the ingredients in our foods look like idiots. They say that HFCS is "all natural, made from corn, nutritional as sugar and just fine consumed in moderation."



Here's the problems with these adds. They're funded/made by the Corn Refiners Association, which suffered an historical loss this year, so it's in their best interest, not ours or our kids. The only thing I do agree with is the "moderation" part, the problem with that is that most people get this in excess through the consumption of processed foods, sodas, and juice drinks. Natural would be the actual corn kernel. MODERATION! Kids, and many adults for that matter, don't naturally do moderation, they have to be taught this by mom throughout childhood in order to establish healthy eating habits.


Many researchers have found harmful effects on the body linked to HFCS compared to natural sweeteners such as honey. Here's a link to one such study.



http://www.westonaprice.org/modernfood/highfructose.html



I'm not an extreme "t-totaller" on this, but I do avoid HFCS when possible. I'm a proud label reader, and try to avoid the "middle aisles" of the grocery store. As mom, I take protecting the health of my family quite seriously.



By the way, 2 of these commercials have aired on the channel I'm watching in the time it's taken me to write this. It's almost like they're saying "How dare you deny your kids sugar!" I personally don't care for sugar'd up kids. It affects them negatively. I'm done.

Roast Chicken

Okay, so I finally tried a new recipe! I did Tyler's Ultimate Roast Chicken. It was incredibly good, I made the gravy and everything! I served it with mashed potatoes and greenbeans.
Go to foodtv.com and get the recipe. It was really easy. I bought a frozen whole chicken at Aldi and thawed it in the fridge a couple days prior to cooking. The only variation I did was I put half the orange and half the onion and the little bits of garlic cloves out of the top I cut off the head into the pan beside the chicken. One other tip I learned on TV is if you don't have string to tie the legs together, cut a small slit in the skin by the opening and cross the leg and insert the joint bone into the slits(both sides). This holds them nicely.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_21965,00.html

Summer Blog Break

Well, warm weather is here, and I'm spending all my blogging time outside! Playing, gardening, grilling, reading, sunning, and soon, swimming! I'll only be blogging on occasion until the cold weather comes back. Cooking and blogging seem to be my winter hobbies. I'll update every now and then throughout the summer.

Ahhhhhhhh

I finally made it into that hammock I was wishing about earlier! I got my tea, my book, and my hat and we headed out of the room with our sand toys. I layed there and read for about an hour while the kids played in the sand! This is the palm tree beside my hammock. When the nice gentle breeze blew, the dried fronds against the trunk made the most glorious swishing sound. Ahhhhh. Sun, gentle breeze, nice sound, good book, hot tea, hammock. I wish I were there now!
Reece found some pirate treasure in the sand!

Alli's 3rd Birthday

Alli's 3rd birthday was while we were in Orlando. I usually do pancakes in the shape of their birthday number for their birthday breakfast, but I obviously couldn't do that in the hotel room! We took a break from the instant oatmeal, and had Mickey Mouse waffles at the restaurant for Alli's birthday.She got orange juice in a fancy "princess" cup!
Reece trying to get close to his waffles for the picture.
Aren't they cute? There were tasty, too!
Here's one of the best pics I got of them together the whole week. That's the lake in the center of the resort in the background, isn't it a pretty scene!?

More Orlando

I may have mentioned this previously, but, they have bikes you can rent, and a nice path around the property, so we did that one morning. Here's Reece on his red bike with the required helmet. We're not big believers in bike helmets at our house. You need to learn to protect your noggin, not bash it uncautiously into things! Alli rode in the seat behind me, she loved that!
It finally got warm enough to swim in the big pool.

Reece stays close to the side, always within my sight, very careful.
Alli would swim all the way across the pool away from me, socializing with everyone along the way, singing and splashing in her own little world.
They are so very different, it astounds me!

Sand and Dinner

Sand writing

Where I wished I was at that moment
This is how I made dinner almost every night. The hotel doesn't have microwaves! I had called about this beforehand, and took food that could be made with hot water from the coffee maker, and took metal bowls small enough to fit on the element to heat the soups. If I had remembered them, I would have gotten those dried soups in the bowls that you just add hot water to, but I had forgotten they made those when I was shopping.
The Disney food is very expensive, and not very tasty or healthy, I learned this lesson on our trip last year. I shipped 2 boxes of food down with the stuff from Scott's office. Including pb crackers, instant oatmeal, instant grits, cheerios, wheat thins, cheezits, rasins, trailmix, chicken salad packets, tuna salad packets, jelly, bread, granola bars, oranges, apples, herbal tea, can soups, etc. This bowl was a little big and we had to bend it a little to make it fit, but it worked!
This is a mule with wings that was in the gift shop. Odd little thing, though cute.

Hot Tub

It was a little too cool the second day to swim in the pool, so we hung out in the hot tub. Reece loves the hot tub, he actually learned to swim without floaties in the hot tub in Daytona Beach! Alli was not as much of a fan, too HOT! She never got any deeper than this right here.

There was a sandy beach right outside our room, beside the lake that is in the center of the property. Hey look, there's mom!

More Playground

There were swings on the playground, too.

We spotted the Goodyear blimp several time while we were there!

That's the end of day one, I'll post more later, the kids will be up from naps soon.

Play Ground

The Resort has an Aztec theme. They have an awsome playground where we spent lots of time. This is important when your there for a conference, and not going to the Parks every day.

Coronado Springs Resort

Disney's Coronado Springs Resort Lobby

Alli couldn't wait to be a princess in Disney World! She's doing Princess spins on their murphy bed.
Alli pinned Reece
Looking at all the money in the fountain
While I was blinking, Reece stuck his arm in, got his sleeves all wet, and pulled out a quarter, and yes, I made him put it back!

Flight

We had an uneventful flight with AirTran over the Great Southern states to Orlando.

Here is some in-flight advertising, keeping the prices low!

Snack time - be sure to bring an empty sippie cup in your carry-on to prevent spills! I wish I had brought one for myself, as I spilled my Coke on my lap! It dried by the time we got there, and wasn't noticeable.

We made it! The kids are watching cartoons in the lobby while Scott checks us in.

Disney Trip - Finally

I am finally able to get my pictures to upload! So, here's Alli spotting our plane. Travel tip: Be sure to bring some small quiet toys and books to play with while you wait for your plane. She had fun with a book that you place magnetic letters in. Reece played Brick Breaker on Scott's Pearl.

Finally, getting on the plane!

Meeting the pilots. Reece thought all those buttons looked really fun!
Reece, Scott, and CoffeeAlli, Me, and Coffee
More to come, I only know how to do this 5 at a time!