Coming out of hibernation

To tell you about this:

http://drhorrible.com/

Oh. Em. Gee.

Joss Whedon. Nathan Fillion. Neal Patrick Hakfljseiofhzs kfhkjfo;ijfksdfnj iejhz;oifjdj

Sorry, petit mal excitement siezure. I'm fine. Seriously, I cannot wait for this. Check out the teaser and the "Master Plan". Take that, Show Business!

In which I am anal retentive and also there is a flow chart

Most of you are aware of my obsession with Let's Dish! Yes, the exclamation point is part of the name. For those of you who are unenlightened, Let's Dish! is a once-a-month cooking store/service. That's the closest I can come to explaining it. Basically, you sign up for a session online. You choose a menu. Then you go to the store and they have stations set up where you can make up to 24 meals. They have all the ingredients chopped and prepped, and you just assemble them. You freeze the meals and just pop them out of the freezer throughout the month.

I love to cook. I love diving into a recipe, losing myself in the flow of it. I love looking at a pile of random ingredients and using them to create something new and unique. What I do not love is trying to do all of this while two or three very short people are using me as a jungle gym. So I have loved Let's Dish! You go in, cook your ass off for two or three hours, and you're done for the month.

Which is why I was so supremely bummed when my local Let's Dish! stopped offering in-store sessions. They still offer what they call Dish-and-Dash. They will assemble the meals for you, and all you have to do is pick them up. I have tried it a few times, but it wasn't the same. I like being able to leave the paprika out of a dish, or add an extra pinch of cumin. I like seeing what goes in to what I am serving.

So I have decided to take the leap and do some once-a-month cooking on my own. In typical Monkeysparkets fashion, I have excessively over planned. There are color-coded spreadsheets involved. I have sticker labels and a flowchart. You are jealous, people, don't try to hide it.

My sister, who recently expressed a desire to learn how to cook, came over today to help me chop stuff I mean...partake of my culinary genius. Here is our menu:

• Lemon Dill Salmon
• Vegetable Lasagna
• Mushroom chili with homemade French bread
• Grilled Barbecue chicken
• Balsamic Grilled Chicken with Roasted Red Peppers
• Chili Lime Grilled Chicken with Black Bean Salsa
• Prosciutto Wrapped Chicken with Garlic Herb Cheese
• Chicken Fajitas
• Pepper Beef Stir Fry
• Baked Beef Rotini

All together, we made thirty meals in just over five hours. So, that breaks down to a meal every ten minutes. And I won't have to cook for a month! Yee haw!

I will do a few things differently next time. I will definitely do my shopping the day before I cook so that I can get an earlier start. I also may try bi-weekly cooking, as 5 hours was a long time to be on my feet in the kitchen (and a long time for Mr. Monkeysparkets to have both of the kids). If you are interested, here a few sites with good tips and info on OAMC (ooh-acronyms!)

http://www.frugalmom.net/once_a_month_cooking.htm

http://www.once-a-month-cookingworld.com/

In which she posts a million pictures

Well I've been out of it for a while, as we've just had a nasty cold sweep through our house. And before that I was helping my Mom throw a Super Fabulous Tea Party. And by "helping" I pretty much mean "making elaborate To-Do lists and then losing them".

For those of you who don't know my Mom; this woman knows how to party. She had trouble deciding on a theme, so she picked four of them. Unfortuantely, I was only able to get really good pictures in two of the rooms due to light constraints.

There was really dim lighting in the Moroccan room. She draped the whole room in lush fabrics and scattered pillows around the coffee table.

In the dining room she set up a Traditional English Tea. She got out the good silver and fancy china and I actually got to use the soup tureen I got as a wedding gift!

(soup tureen not pictured)

Briah and I were stoked that there was an Asian themed room. Any excuse to wear a Kimono!

Yummy spring rolls in the Asian Tea Room:

My favorite theme, however, was the Mad Hatter's Tea Party:

These streamers were made out of regular playing cards, paper doilies, and pictures from the original book that I found here, colored in, and mounted on cardstock.

She had the centerpiece done by a local florist:

Yes, the cupcakes say "Eat Me"

I guess I am posting all of this because when Mom asked for help with planning the decorations, I spent a lot of time scouring the Internet for ideas and really did not find much. Also this has really inspired me to start planning my own tea party sometime this spring. Though mine will probably be a lot more kid friendly!

Ours is a Forbidden Love

Mr. Monkeysparkets walks into the kitchen while I am Swiffering and wrinkles his nose.


“That stuff stinks”

I blink fast.

“What did you just say??”
“I said that stuff stinks. It smells like rotten oranges.”


A few moments of stunned silence go by. Eventually I ask in a small voice,


“Does it bother you?”
“What?”
“The Swiffer. Does the smell really bother you?”
“Nah. It goes away after a while.”
“Oh, good.”


He raises an eyebrow.

“Honey, if you had to choose between me and the Swiffer…”
“Never ask me that question.”
“Fine. But if I come home and find it in the bedroom, I am not going to be OK with that.”

People? I am in loooooove.

I know it’s wrong, but I just couldn’t help myself. One look at this shiny purple paragon of cleanliness and I was smitten:












Am I the only one out there that gets inappropriately tingly when presented with a new cleaning gadget? No? That’s OK. If loving my Swiffer is wrong, then I don’t want to be right. I've put off buying one of these babies for a long time because I heard that rumor about the cleaning solution containing antifreeze. Snopes says that this is false. I just hosed down our silverware and all the kids' teething toys with it, so I'll let you know.


For those of you who don't know me, I tend to get a little obsessive when I really like something, so you'll probably be seeing more that a few future posts dedicated to this sweet magical contraption. Swiffer fanfic, anyone?



Oh my gosh, I will give a bright shiny nickle to anyone who can come up with a Swiffer fanfic. Bonus points for incorporating any of the following:

Let's Dish!
Joss Whedon or any element of any of the Whedonverses
the dancing old guy from the Six Flags commercials
Jon and Kate Plus 8
Jordan Catalano

Ready? Set? Go!