Kickin It Old School with Nachos - 05.11.2009 and 05.12.2009

I'm not a food snob. I will always hold boxed mac & cheese, Ramen noodles, and microwaved nachos near and dear to my heart.



Here are some tortilla chips topped with sharp cheddar and monterey jack cheeses and zapped in the microwave for 20 seconds.



At some point on Thursday, I went down in to the basement for about 45 minutes and left Ian to his own devices upstairs. When I came upstairs, Ian had constructed this tower made of dvds, books, a tissue box, and drink coasters.


He was visibly upset that tower wasn't tall enough and that the structure wouldn't work for the movie that he was filming. After a couple minutes of quizzing Ian as to exactly what the hell he was trying to accomplish, I finally figured out that he was trying to build a stand that was table height to set the video camera on. Apparently, he wanted to pretend that he was filming a movie with his table full of LEGO toys.




Connor had cheese and crackers for a snack yesterday. He opted to stack all 5 crackers and slices of cheese together and consume them sandwich style.




Here's my breakfast from this morning. I really was craving breakfast so I made some hashbrowns, two eggs over easy, and turkey sausage. The meal was good, but it's always better to go out to breakfast and save the time it takes to cook it all yourself and cleanup the dishes and the kitchen.

Connor's 8th Birthday Dinner and Other Stuff That I Forgot to Post

The kids always get to choose whatever dinner they want on their birthdays. For Connor's 8th birthday, he picked Papa John's for his party and Skyline for his actual birth date.



Ian began his meal with a Spongebob ice cream treat from the cooler.




He then moved on to his mad science experiments. It started off with him crushing oyster crackers and added pepper and him politely asking everyone to try his "recipe". I obliged him. It wasn't that bad.



Then Ian started to get fancy. He took a little chili off of Connor's plate and some cheese from mine and added that to the cracker and pepper mix. This is where I had to draw the line and refuse to try his new "recipe".



We eat a lot of pizza. Here's some pizza from Jet's. Tony loves this stuff. It's not anywhere as good as a mom & pop type of place (Iacono's, Dantes, etc.) but it's good considering that it's from a chain.



Every few months I decide to make lasagna, mostly because of a grudge that I have with myself. My mom makes kickass lasagna and mine always turns out just okay, at best. Somehow I manage to dry it out during the baking process no matter how much sauce that I start with. This was no exception.



Tony was off of work last week and asked me to get him up a Big n' Tasty from McDonald's on my way home from picking Ian up from school. I can't even think the words "Big n' Tasty" without giggling a little. I don't know why, but it just cracks me up that Tony requested this sandwich.


This is a chicken pita from My Big Fat Greek Kuzina. Tony and I ate there a couple of weekends ago after David's 30th birthday party. I'm not going to lie to you, I was already pretty drunk when got to the restaurant (and by pretty drunk, I actually mean very drunk). I don't really remember whether this was good or not but it looks yummy.

Michelle (Wo)Mans The Grill - 05.18.2009

I love grilling season. Monday was a beautiful day so I decided to go to the store for chicken, corn on the cob, and redskin potatoes - all perfect grilling foods!




Ian joined me on the trip to the store and, not surprisingly, picked out a baguette for himself. I asked him to wait until we got home to eat it, but he politely ignored me and dug right in as soon as we got in to the car.



Tony is totally capable of manning the grill, but my obsession with cooking as caused me to take over primary grilling duties. It can be a little tricky to prepare perfectly grilled meats and vegetables. The timing all has to be right and every thing needs to be taken off of the grill at exactly the right time. It's a challenge to sear chicken on the outside while keeping it moist on the inside and bringing the meat up to an internal temperature of 165 degrees. And I love a challenge.




Great success!

A Special Message From Ian James Stewart - 05.12.2009

A message from Ian:

"Why did it just occur to me that I should pick my nose and wipe it on my brother and make him cry? I feel like I've been missing out on so many booger opportunities in the past 6.5 years. With this knowledge, I will now be UNSTOPPABLE! HAHAHAHAHAHAHE"

stuff from last week

I made this. It was good. It's penne pasta tossed with a lot of homemade red sauce, topped with a 4 cheese blend in then cooked under the broiler for a couple of minutes.



This is the Turkey Club Salad from Arby's. It was delicious and I would eat one of these a couple of times a week if Arby's wasn't so damned expensive. This salad and a medium Diet Pepsi cost over $7.oo.



A healthy meal! Roasted chicken with steamed asparagus and a baked potato.



Connor received approximately one billion LEGOs for his birthday last week. When I was a kid, all we had was a plastic bin filled with various LEGOs. Nowadays, LEGOs are sold in kits that make specific structures. Connor is a huge fan of the Star Wars, Mars Mission, and Agents variety of LEGOs. It took about 3 days and the combined effort of Connor, Ian, the 11 year old who lives across the street, and myself to complete these structures.



Here are a couple of pictures from the Muffins with Mom breakfast held at the kid's school last week. My manorexic children don't care for muffins or donuts, so we ate at home and then visited the kids' classrooms and hung out with the other familes when we got to school. I have no explanation for the face that Ian is making. The kid is odd, what else can I say?