20 Scariest Movies of All Time - Spookify your night!

I'm sort of proud to say I have seen most of these!

1. The Shining - Yes. Watch this. If you haven't seen The Shining before, drop what you are doing a put it on now. Not only a great horror movie, also one of the most legendary movies. Of. All. Time.
2. The Exorcist - Ain't nothin' creepier than a demonoid board game. This movie prompted my Ma to buy me a Ouija board when I was about 14. It was made by Hasbro, purchased at Toys R Us and glowed in the dark. Creeepy!
3. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre - Scarier than the recent remake but mostly because of the '70s filming techniques.
4. The Silence of the Lambs - "Hello Clarice"
5. Jaws - I don't feel  like this fits the "horror" bill. I mean yes, it's scary. And sure, it has a lot of blood. And death. And the ever annoying Richard Dreyfuss. Never mind. It works.
6. The Ring - VHS Tape! Scary!
7. Halloween - Another film that is only made more creepy by the era that it was made. Plus, young Jamie Lee!
8. Psycho - WTF Norman Bates!? So many "mommy issues". Plus, young Janet Leigh!
9. Seven - Somehow I didn't see this film until recently. Just more proof that Kevin Spacey plays an amazing crazy person. Diabolical. 
10. Rosemary's Baby - We are not allowed to watch this in our house. I made the hubs watch it years ago and he was scarred for life. 
11. Poltergeist - This movie won't scare you, but it may cause you to laugh your ass off. At least it the filming was rumored to be cursed, so that helps.
12. 28 Days Later - Oh lordy! This is the film that made me realize my issues with zombies. They hunt people! HUNT THEM! Not ok, ya'all!
13. A Nightmare On Elm Street - It has a young Johnny Depp. Apart from that, it's a classic '80s horror film.
14. The Thing - This one I have not seen. the fact that the director is quoted as saying, "When The Thing was released, it was one of the most hated movies of all time." Doesn't make me want to do a Netflix search for it.
15. The Evil Dead - I had to turn this movie off. Legit. Once the trees started raping a woman, I had to call it. That's enough evil for me. Not ok.
16. Carrie - Damn the opening scene of this flick. Really?! Really!? It was the '70s and awkward nudity seems to have been a must.
17. Night of the Living Dead - Daaamn. Original zombie creeping. A solid flick if you can handle the odd quality of it all. 
18. The Omen - IMO, this movie ruined the name Damien. For reals. 
19. An American Werewolf in London - I have not seen this and I don't know if I would be able to stop singing Werewolves of London long enough to watch it.
20. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer - Another movie I could not make it through. I'm not even sure what it was that made me turn this flick off but I do remember being upset by how OK it was that he was brutally murdering people. 

Or just stick with some Ghostbusters action and keep things light but spooky! You can't go wrong with a movie that was mostly ad-libbed by Bill Murray.

Meatless Monday and Other Stuff

For those who pay attention to such things, there was no Meatless Monday this week. Nor will there be a Totally Meatless Tuesday, Wacky Vegetarian Wednesday, Thrillingly Meatless Thursday or Fabulously Vegan Friday.

Both Monday and Tuesday require warm cozy comfort food so we had spaghetti. Same exact thing. Both nights.

Shut up, I needed to not worry about dinner for a couple of days.

Things are perking up a bit around here since Monday's sadness. Little Bear has asked about Izzy a few times but it's always been in passing so we haven't said much. The hubs and I both decided that if he straight up asks, "Where is Izzy?" we will tell him. Until then, we are being vague. Dog has been a little off but seems mostly unchanged by the loss of his tiny friend. Cat#1 has been a little more cuddly and a little less of a dick. He's also started opening the giant container I have always kept the cat food in and is now regularly trying to help himself. So apparently Izzy must have kept him from doing asshole things like that. He's lucky we love him.

Tonight will be spent putting the finishing touches on the hubs costume (Little Bear's and mine are ready to go), for tomorrow is Halloween!

An Ode To Izzy

Like most pet parents, our pets are part of our family. Which makes it even more difficult when one leaves to cross the Rainbow Bridge.

Isabel. Oh, little Izzy. In this house of boys, she was my girly little girl. A tiny cat with a huge heart and not a single mean bone on her body. Izzy loved everything and if she didn't love it, she simply hid from it. She was neurotic. And odd. And lovey. And cuddly. And had the sweetest little meow.

Izzy joined our family not long after the hubs and I moved in together. I had Cat#1 when we moved in together and he was my boy. The hubs, feeling left out of the pet love, convinced me we needed another cat. 

We took a trip to the pound and were told, "Sorry, it isn't really kitten season but feel free to look at what we have." The hubs spotted a tiny cat hiding in a litter box and looking scared of the world. She had been abandoned with her brother and left with a note that simply said, "Please take care of these cats." We instantly fell in love. 

The early days, hiding in a closet and covering our clothes in fur.

We brought our tiny kitty home and she became part of our family. Izzy brought many trials to our apartment. She hid in the walls and in the floor. She crawled inside the giant heater and almost became a fireball. She curled up under covers and mostly kept to herself but was always a furry ball of love. 

Soon after bringing Izzy home, we realized she was "special". Special like, not so smart special. Cats can't really be trained to start with but Izzy took that to a new level. Basically, she had to be protected from herself and her own absentmindedness. The up side of that was that she was a little too dopey to be mean. She just didn't know how. Izzy never really figured out that she had claws so there was no need to declaw her. She never really whined for food like Cat#1 because she trusted that her loving pet parents would feed her when she needed to eat. Even though she was spade, Izzy made nests like a girl cat about to give birth (again, not so smart). She built homes inside couches and box springs, under dressers and in the crawl space. Girl could always find a good place to hide.

Unlike Cat#1 who rolls with things, Izzy was a prissy girl about her litter box. She peed on more piles of clothes and blankets than I even know. But damn that cute little face, we could never get mad. 

When we moved 600 miles away, the pets came along for the ride. Izzy arrived at our new home with a new social personality. She became friendly and hid less but was always a little skiddish. We moved back home a year later and again Izzy switched to being an even more amazing cat. With every new adventure (moving to a house, getting Dog, bringing Little Bear home), Izzy brought out a bit more of her lovely personality. 

The change of me becoming a SAHM suited the little kitty wonderfully. Izzy no longer needed to spend her days hiding, Mom was home! She would chirp while I was busy in the kitchen and roam the garden or chase Dog in the grass while I did yard work. She was my baby girl. Always ready with a cuddle. Instead of scurrying away from Little Bear when he wanted to snuggle, like Cat#1, Izzy would go limp and let him curl up on her. When Little Bear was a baby I spent many night nursings with a fluffy cat curled up on my lap along side him. 

The house is not the same today. It's a little quieter. A little less fuzzy. There is only one food dish to be filled. There's nobody at the patio door chirping at birds. Nobody to bring Cat#1 out of his bad ass shell and give him a cute little bath. No little bell jingling into the kitchen for a cuddle or running after Dog for a game of chase. 

I miss my kitty. 

Izzy had a wonderful life. She was part of our brood. When Cat#1 was being a crab ass and Dog was being a beast, there was always Izzy around to keep things lovey. 

She helped to make our family whole and we will always miss her love.

Recipe Share: Oven Fried Chicken

In the past, I have been lead astray by many "healthy" fried chicken recipes. Most use bread crumbs and egg to try and duplicate the most delicious and unhealthy of chicken coatings. Most end up with a dry and crumbly outside that is not anywhere near true finger-lickin' fried chicken.

This one was different. And delicious! They key? Butter, of course!

Oven Fried Chicken

• 3lbs chicken pieces, rinsed and patted dry*
• ½ cup melted butter (I only use about half this amount and can’t tell a difference)
• ½ cup flour, heaping
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon pepper
• 1 ½ teaspoons paprika

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Mix together flour, salt, pepper and paprika (I do this in a Ziploc bag). Dip chicken pieces in melted butter and then coat evenly with flour mixture.

Place in a single layer on a greased shallow baking pan (skin side down – if you’ve left the skin on).

Bake 400 degrees for 30 minutes. Turn chicken pieces over and continue baking an additional 30 minutes.

Serves 4

*The original recipe calls for the skin to be left on, but I usually remove the skin. It’s good either way!

I followed the tips in the posted recipe (1/4 cup butter and no skin) and was pleasantly surprised by how close to real fried chicken this was. I also added a bit more pepper and some garlic powder.

The skin was moist and not weirdly crumbly like most oven fried chicken recipes and overall it was pretty damn good! Next time I think I will add some herbs to the flour mixture as well.

Yes, the butter sort of takes away from the "healthy" aspect but in comparison to true fried-in-a-pan-of-oil chicken, I'd say this is a healthy step up. Plus, WAY less mess.

Give it a shot and let me know what you think!

Pet Treat Recall

I caught this on the Today Show this morning and figured it was worth a share.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Jerky treat mystery: Nearly 600 pets dead; still no source, FDA says

Nearly 600 pets have died and more than 3,600 have been sickened in an ongoing, mysterious outbreak of illnesses tied to jerky treats made in China, federal animal health officials said Tuesday. 

Most of the cases have been in dogs of all breeds, ages and sizes — although 10 cats have been sickened, too — after eating chicken, duck and sweet potato jerky treats. The pace of the reported illnesses appears to have slowed, but federal Food and Drug Administration officials are now seeking extra help from veterinarians and pet owners in solving the ongoing puzzle.

“To date, testing for contaminants in jerky treats has not revealed a cause for the illnesses,” Martine Hartogensis, a deputy director for the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine, said in the new report. “Despite these warnings, we have continued to receive reports of illnesses in both cats and dogs.”

The new numbers are up from some 500 deaths and 3,200 illnesses tallied in January, but the rate of reports has fallen sharply since then, mostly because two of the largest sellers of pet jerky treats announced recalls tied to the presence of unapproved antibiotic residue detected in the products.

Fast facts on the jerky treat investigation

FDA officials don’t think that antibiotic residue is the big problem that has stumped the agency since 2007, when pet owners started reporting their animals were suffering gastrointestinal and kidney problems after eating the popular jerky treats. 

Instead, it’s likely that the recall of Nestle Purina PetCare Co.’s Waggin Train and Canyon Creek Ranch treats, plus Del Monte Corp.’s Milo’s Kitchen Chicken Jerky and Chicken Grillers home-style dog treats simply resulted in fewer treats being available. Three other smaller retailers also recalled the treats because of the problem. 

In fact, FDA officials remain as uncertain as ever about the source of the problem that has led to reports of illnesses and warnings about the possibility of Fanconi syndrome and other kidney problems in animals that ate jerky treats.

“We still are extensively testing treats for a number of things,” Hartogensis told NBC News. “We do seem to be getting some leads, but we still have a little bit of a ways to go.”

Kendal Harr, a veterinary clinical pathologist who has been tracking the problem, says that the specific compound responsible for the illnesses continues to elude experts. 

"I think that what it tells us is that the intoxicant is something that we're not used to dealing with as a toxin in North America," she said. 

Now, in an open letter to US veterinarians, FDA officials are asking the vets to track and send detailed information about any animals sickened by jerky treats, including results of blood and urine tests. In addition, the agency is asking vets to send urine samples from suspect pets for analysis.

“This testing will allow FDA to get a better idea of how many of the suspected cases involve Fanconi syndrome, whether or not the pets display symptoms of kidney or urinary disease,” the report said.

About 60 percent of reports cite gastrointestinal illness in the animals, and about 30 percent flag kidney or urinary troubles, the report said. About 135 cases of Fanconi syndrome, a specific kind of kidney disease, have been reported.

At the same time that they’re seeking help from vets, FDA officials are putting out a fact sheet for owners that can be posted at veterinary hospitals, pet supply stores and other sites.

The agency has repeatedly cautioned that the treats are not necessary for a balanced diet, but the warnings stop short of a recall, Hartogensis said. The agency is still validating tests to detect the same kind of antibiotic residue that New York officials found earlier this year.

“If we do find an adulterated product, we will recall them,” Hartogensis said. “In terms of doing a blanket recall, at this point we don’t have enough evidence to do a blanket recall within the authority that we have.”

Because there's no formal recall, it's not possible to list affected brands, although a previous FDA analysis indicated that three of the top-selling brands of jerky treats sold in the U.S. were mentioned in connection with pet illnesses. 

That doesn't sit well with pet owners like Robin Pierre of Pine Bush, N.Y., who contends that Waggin' Train chicken jerky treats were responsible for the sudden death in 2011 of her previously healthy 2-year-old pug, Bella, who developed kidney failure. She has long called for FDA to crack down on treat makers — and manufacturers. 

"I am disgusted that our government continues to protect corporate American and China," she told NBC News. "They need to start protecting the American consumer so that this does not happen again. As soon as a product is in doubt, a warning label should be placed at the point of sale so that consumers can make an educated choice."

If a pet does become ill after eating the treats, FDA is asking owners to provide detailed information — up to and including results of a necropsy to test an animal’s tissues after death.

In the meantime, officials are trying to reach pet owners who might still have treats on hand to make sure they know about the potential problems.

“Right now, the focus for us is to make the public aware that these cases are still coming in,” she said. 

Pet owners can report problems with jerky treats at the FDA's consumer safety portal. 

Additional details can be found here, on the FDA website.

Halloween Is Coming

Soon.

Meatless Monday Lazy Win!

To me, Brinner pretty much always involves eggs. Sometimes they are in french toast form, sometimes an egg bake or omelet, sometimes just straight up classic-grandma's-cheesy-eggs. Tonight we did Brinner, sans the eggs.

Due to an extended "You have to go potty!" battle with Little Bear, I was running a little behind on dinner prep for the night. Actually, come 5 o'clock, I hadn't even decided what we would have apart from the fact that I was determined to stick to the Meatless Monday deal. Brinner is easy but we had all had eggs for breakfast and there is a limit to how many eggs one family should consume in a day. So what to do? Zero time, limited creativity flowing and must be meatless.

You know you miss having more Wilford Brimley in your life.

Oatmeal. 

Man, I love me some delicious oatmeal. Not the instant from a packet stuff (I'd demolish that too though), but from the stove oatmeal with delicious mix-ins. 

Oatmeal usually falls into the cereal category and as a cereal is always ruled out as a dinner food because, well, now we have a child. Our days of eating cereal for dinner went out the window when Little Bear started eating solids. Tonight, I reconsidered.

When we have oatmeal for breakfast, we usually have a variety of mix-ins to choose from. Milk, fruit, raisins, etc. So when I got to thinking about it, I realized it's a damn balanced meal. Cook it up!

10 minutes later, bam! Meatless Monday done and Brinner revamp! 

AND since I wrote this up, it's no longer a great example of me being lazy, just good blog fodder. Happy Monday, all!

Bam!

Imma steal Emerald's "Bam!"

He hasn't done anything for the general public in a while. I think it's time we bring that back and give it some new (non food related) life.

Bam!

Three Day Potty Training: Day 3 And Beyond!

Even though we abandoned the whole Three Day method, I figured I'd do a bit of a wrap up.

We started Monday and strictly followed Three Day deal for the first two days. Then we realized that is SO not the method for our Little Bear and it was driving him to hate us and his potty. Wednesday, we started to relax a bit.

It wasn't until yesterday afternoon that it hit me that part of our issue was the underwear. Although Little Bear was happy to be rid of diapers, he was still in the diaper mindset and was using underwear the same way (a little pee here, a little pee there so we were having constant accidents) and wasn't getting that you hold it until you have enough to have to go to the potty.

Which brings us to today and a little boy that is now stuck just wearing a big t-shirt and socks. The condition now is that he needs to be able to tell us when he has to pee, then we will start letting him wear undies again. Ditching any clothes below the belt seems to be teaching him that he can't go a little all the time. He doesn't like peeing without anything on his bottom so he actually holds it until the next time he's on the pot.

In addition to ditching the unders, we have also (finally) gotten Little Bear on board with "trying" regularly. In order to get him to stop fighting that idea (and literally fighting me when I put him on the potty), I started treating it like I do everything else with him, lots of warning. "You can play for two more minutes and then we're going to try to go pee... One minute to go." "Fly one more lap around the house and then we'll go try in the bathroom." "Pick a stuffed animal you would like to bring to the potty with you." "As soon as you are done eating, we'll go sit on the froggy potty!" Also, I've stopped asking if he wants to go try because the answer will be "no". Instead it's just what we're doing. End of story.

Seriously, night and day. The kid just needs warning and to know what is coming next. He wants to be involved in the day's plan and I think it makes him feel like he's a little more in control and not being forced to do things.

Hopefully this gets us one step closer to him telling us when he has to pee, and one step closer to wearing pants.

Three Day Potty Training: Day 2

Day two. It was good. A lot like day one but with a few less pairs of wet underwear. And a giant realization that made us say, "Eff that three day lady."

Yet again, by the end of the day Little Bear was completely sick of me hovering and was out to get me. He started the day strong but went downhill again post nap time. By the time dinner hit he was against anything that involved me.

Thankfully, that's when the hubs took over.

The main change that Daddy did was just chill out on the Three Day Potty Training method. He didn't watch Little Bear constantly in that time but just kept him in sight. They played like they always do at night and every now and then talked about pee pee things and how it might feel if it's coming and checked for dry underwear.

While the hubs was in charge, Little Bear had one accident followed by two #1 successes and one #2 success! Whoa, dude! Amazing!

And that is when we decided that the tips in this three day deal are not for our kid. I can see that it would work for some but it seems to just annoy ours. He does not want to be pestered and constantly watched. He wants things how they always have been and he wants me to chill and STFU. What can I say, he's his father's son.

So that is what we have been doing today. Regular day, with me staying a bit more alert to what he is doing than usual and for the most part letting him do his own thing. So far, so good! We even made a trip to Target without any accidents!

Little Bear is currently chatting away in his crib on his way to dream land (and probably a soaked bed again, whatevs, he'll get there on that). I'm a little scared of what post nap time may bring us today. Good or bad, I feel like we are on the right track.

It may not take three days but I think this kid will be potty trained soon!

(Lord, please don't let the above statement curse me to be trapped in potty training hell for all toddlerhood.)

3 Day Potty Training: Day 1 (Or As I Like To Think Of It, Potty Hell)

Potty train your child in three days! Have you guys heard of this? Sounds amazing, right?

Our neighbors swore by it with their two kids. (Trust me, they are not crazy weirdos who would say their kid was awesome at something that they aren't. The neighbs are good.) As Little Bear approached 2 years old, the neighbs were nice enough to pass along the literature that they had from training their kiddos. I stashed the info away and figured I would pull it out when the time came. Well, the time is nigh.

Little Bear has been showing signs for a couple of months and we finally had a good stretch that I knew I could give him my undivided attention. Yesterday was spent readying a bunch of very exciting underwear (Spiderman, Airplanes, Mickey Mouse, Thomas. All the tiny man faves), prepping possible rewards and a potty chart and catching up on as much housework as possible because I knew the next few days would be insane.

Last night we talked a lot with Little Bear about the fact that today was Underwear Day and we would be getting rid of "ishy" diapers. He was excited. We were excited.

Tonight I am not excited. Tonight I want a beer.

The morning started off great. Little Bear happily tossed his diapers and refilled the drawer with all his cool new underwear. He chose his first pair and we were set.

For those that aren't familiar with the 3 day method listed above, I'll give you a few key points.

• Do not ask you child, "Do you need to go potty?" Instead, constantly, seriously, effing constantly, remind them to "Let Mommy know when you have to go potty." This way they feel more in control. Makes sense, toddlers like control. Yeah, really fricken hard to do. Little Bear abruptly stops playing or scrunches his face and my first instinct is to say the former. Eff!
• Positive Reinforcement is what will keep your child coming back to the potty. Do not scold. I figured that would be SUPER easy. Not so much. The sticker and chart part of that was good but being super positive about urination for 14 hours can actually cause a human to lose their damn mind. It wasn't that hard to not scold... but by the end of the day, it was really hard to not cry.
• Consistency. I usually rock at this. I love routines, especially in parenting. They are glorious! A little predictability in the chaos? Absolutely. Yeah, that's really hard when someone is urinating on your floor.
• Stay near your child. No distractions. Nothing but you watching you child. All day. Everyday. I was alright with this. It was kind of weird but not terrible for me. I'm pretty sure Little Bear hated that and it actually worked against me by day's end. He usually plays on his own for a good chunk of the day, his mom hovering was not cool.

So, new unders on Little Bear's bottom, we set out on a course towards potty trained. The morning was alright. More accidents than successes but that's OK. Before nap I got two perfect successes where he said he had to go, we ran and he went. I felt good going into the nap.

Post nap, not so much. Boy was completely over me reminding him to tell when he had to go and I'm pretty sure was sick of me following his little butt around everywhere.

At a few points Little Bear actually straight up said that he would not tell me when he had to go potty and is not going to keep his underwear dry. Because he's mean.... He didn't say the mean part... But I could feel he wanted to. Seriously, boy wanted me out of his business. 

We did have a couple successes during that time, but they were eclipsed by the amount of grabbing-him-mid-stream-and-running-to-the-potty that I had to do.

The night wrapped up with the hubs taking over for bedtime. He calmly tried to get Little Bear to go potty before bed. Multiple times. It didn't work. Instead he peed in his crib 3 minutes after he laid down. Neat.

I'm hearing the same things from most people tonight: 

"The first day is the worst." 

"Stick with it, if you give up now it'll only be harder later." 

"It will get easier every day." 

"Your child is not out to get you via urination." 

Nobody is saying that last one... but somebody probably should. Soon.

Alright, day one of three down. I figure I have to at least give it the full three days before I fully lose it. Things have to get better tomorrow. Have to.

For now I will just keep smiling, being positive and cleaning up piss. Because I love my son. 

Chobani Recall Update

It appears that Chobani delivered on their promise and did a damn good job of it, if you ask me!

A little while back, I accidentally fed my kid some Mucor circinelloides. I contacted the good people at Chobani and was told that I would receive some product replacement coupons in the mail.

Sure did!

Yeah, I do!

I expected to get maybe two or three coups for replacement Champions Tubes but instead was surprised with $17 worth of free yogurt! And not just Tubes, the coupons are for Chobani Flips, Cups, Tubes and Bowls! I don't even know what most of those are but we get to try them all! Score! Especially since I am rarely willing to spend the extra dollars on pricey Chobani yogurt!

We gettin' fancy yogurt now, fam!

Well, at least until our 8 coupons are gone!

Way to remedy your mess up Chobani.

Respect.

Meatless Monday: Week Four - Success!!!

Done on the correct day. Done without using Catholic loopholes. Delicious.

That's a Meatless Monday win!

In an effort to find more uses for the bulk of black beans in our pantry, I started searching for black bean burger recipes. I found a ton but most required a grocery store trip and since that wasn't happening, I settled on this one for black bean burgers with a fried egg.

I left off the fried egg and decided to grill them rather than pan fry. I used up the rest of my mini candy onions from the garden rather than then yellow in the recipe.

The black bean burgers were a little tougher to grill than regular burgers, since they don't stay together quite as well, but pretty tasty!

The hubs was a big fan and thought they even had a White Castle Sliders taste (trust me, that's a good thing). I'm thinking that was the onions in the mix, so yeah, good touch!

Alright, first win in a while but I'm going to take it and run! Next week will be a success as well!

Another Recipe Share (AKA, Why Have I Never Made Beef and Broccoli Before?)

You may have gathered this by now, but I'm not great at the whole "following a recipe" thing or even really having the correct ingredients. That's part of what I really enjoy about cooking though, it's pretty hard to screw things up as long as your adjustments aren't ridiculous. I think a cooking recipe is better used as a guide to get you going rather than something that MUST be followed. In a lot of cases, minor tweaks can make a so-so meal way better. This may have been one of those cases. Had I followed the recipe to a T, I doubt it would have gone over as well as it did with the fam.

I had some steak and a head of broccoli in the fridge so I did some Googling and settled on this.

Broccoli Beef Recipe

Somehow, I have never cooked this and I have no idea why. Easy. Not terrible for you. Delish. Duh!

Of course, I had to make some adjustments for the fact that my cupboards were lacking.

I have no clue how much steak or broccoli I used. Probably more than the recipe asked for. It looked like a satisfying amount. I was plum out of Chinese rice wine (or never had it ever) so I went with white wine. No oyster sauce in the house (shocking, right) so I just added a bit more chicken broth to compensate. Also, I felt like there wasn't nearly enough marinade so I did tablespoons of the wine and soy sauce rather than teaspoons.

I know I marinaded longer than the 10 minutes in the recipe but I have no idea how long. 30 minutes? 45? I'm easily distracted by other tasks.

Tossed it up on some brown rice and wala, dinner!

And it was good! Little Bear even liked it! Well, he liked the steak part. The broccoli and rice weren't so much a hit. I'll take what I can get at dinner time. The hubs was a big fan and my Ma was over and liked it too.

Yep, that's a dinner win, folks!

So go ahead, divert from the recipe. Try something that could be great, or weird. Tweak things for you, your family and your pantry. Learn as you go. Make dinner an experiment.

Cooking is actually pretty forgiving when you make educated guesses.

Worst case scenario, choke down something not so good and try again tomorrow. Or make a frozen pizza.

How Have You Traumatized Your Child Lately?

After yesterday's nap time I had to run an errand to Menard's. Initially, Little Bear was not so happy about having to go and since explaining that two-year-olds cannot stay home alone didn't seem to change his mind, I resorted to bribery. Dog bribery.

"If we go to Menard's maybe we can look in the pet area and pick out a new toy for you and Dog to play with!" That did it, he was all about getting something for his loyal companion. 

After much debate, we settled on a horned monster. 

Upon arriving home, Little Bear ran in to give his well chosen toy to his best buddy. Dog could not have cared less. He didn't even bother dropping his rawhide-pacifier. Rawhide pacifier? It's totally a thing. Dog has anxiety issues. He carries a rawhide around in his mouth for months at a time and never eats it. It soothes him. He's effed up. Anyways, he didn't even bother to switch out his paci for the prized monster. 

Little Bear threw the monster aside and resorted to just chasing Dog around the house until one/both were distracted by something else. 

Later when the hubs came home, I asked Little Bear if he had showed Daddy the new toy he got for Dog. We went on the hunt and found the monster where it had been discarded earlier. Little Bear and I then started a jovial game of tug o' war with Dog and our new monster friend.

And then things got sad.

About ten tugs in, Dog won. He ripped the monster's head off. And he didn't stop there. He proceeded to rip all of the stuffing from the monster's beheaded torso. To which Little Bear responded in horror. From there, Dog ran down the hall and ripped the rest of our poor monster to pieces. In Little Bear's playroom.

"He break monster! He broke his heeeeead! Monster not have a head! Dog in there and broke monster! Bad Dog! You hurt monster!"

Oh, and how he sobbed. It. Was. Awful. 

Eventually, Little Bear calmed down and we had a talk about how dogs do different things with their toys than little boys do. We also learned the reasons why we should not ever let Dog play with our toys.

He will murder them.

Meatless Monday: Week Three - Yep, that's another fail

So, fail again.

Unless you're Catholic. And it's a Friday during Lent. Then seafood is not a meat. (Shhh it's OK, I used to be Catholic, it's fine.)

It was 80+ degrees yesterday (In MN. In Autumn. Big deal!), so I really wanted to grill out. After an "Endless Shrimp Feast" at the Red Lobster last week with my ma, the hubs and I will probably never be OK with shrimp pasta or scampi ever again so grilling seemed like the most tolerable way to use the shrimp we had in the freezer. I turned to the grilling cookbook and found this recipe.

I was without some of the ingredients so I winged it without rice vinegar, ginger, and mango/papaya/pineapple chunks. I used the veggies we currently have in the garden instead of the ones in the recipe.

For the sauce I used the juice from a can of crushed pineapple and some of the pineapple, brown sugar, corn starch, soy sauce, garlic and olive oil.

For veggies on the kabobs I used green peppers, black pearl tomatoes, mini candy onions, little sweet red peppers and zucchini.

Post-skewering.
Pre-saucing.

Pro Tip: Soak those skewers in water for a while or the suckers will burn right off your kabobs!

I spread the sauce on them, grilled them up and they looked lovely!  Note: The sauce was much thicker than I'm guessing it would have been if I had done the exact recipe so I didn't have any to brush on while grilling, still good though!

I think jasmine rice would have been ideal with this but since we only had brown rice, I went with that and added some of the crushed pineapple and smashed up mandarin oranges.

It was goooood! I think this is my new fave way to have shrimp! The hubs liked it too! I made the mistake of letting Little Bear see me pealing the shrimp earlier in the day to which he responded, "I don't wanna eat that." And yep, come dinner, he remembered and would not eat anything but the rice. Ugh, fine.

I'm calling this a fail since one of the points of Meatless Monday is to wipe out the cost of using meat. Yes, the shrimp were in the freezer so they didn't cost anything now, but I did buy them at some point, and I am no longer a Catholic, and it is not a Friday during Lent.

So yeah, FAIL!

I suppose I should maybe give up on Meatless Monday... but nah! I'd rather keep trying and owing up to my failures!

Plus, it's fun to share food experiments.