"What's for dinner?", Oh, it's right here

And, to follow yesterday's post. Here are some of our favorite "OK, OK, I'm doing the shopping. Here I am in the store. What will we have for dinner? Oh, it's right here" meals.

Trader Joes: Pasta and one of their yummy pre-made spaghetti sauces.

Savemart: The Rotisserie Chicken dinner

Costco: Bagels, turkey rolls, grapes. More of a lunch, but definitely dinner if Eric is going to be gone.

Chocolate Covered

Here's my MVP list of the chocolate covered items in some of the stores we frequent.

1. Costco. Dark Chocolate Covered Pomegranate Fillings

2. Target. Dark Chocolate Covered Almonds

3. Trader Joes. Milk Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Pretzels

Just in case you haven't tried one of those. They come recommended.

The last one on the list, the milk chocolate peanut butter pretzels, are actually my "no guilt" reward to myself for when I give birth. Some women get jewelry, I get those pretzels. If Eric and I start considering whether or not to have Baby Number Four, you can bet the pretzel reward will be up there in the "Why Deborah Should Have Another Baby" column.

Mom Trick Number One

Eric makes pancakes for the kids on the weekends. Makes a lot. Then we freeze them. Pop them in the toaster another day and presto! Breakfast!

See? It took me a long time to figure that out.

(So, you wonder. Is the trick about freezing the pancakes, or getting the dad to make the breakfast?)

Confession Number Two

Here it is, the other confession (I knew there was another one at least!) And this confession, I fear, will offend many.

I used to cook a lot with cream of _______ . Especially in college when I lived with Kristen C. and we roommates all cooked together. (I could never really get it to work, the "let's all take a night" thing, unless I lived with Kristen. I tried. It just never worked without her.)

Anyway. Cream of blank. Used to use a lot of it, but gave it up about the time I got married and realized that 1) Cream of blank is just a poor excuse for a good white sauce or cheese sauce 2) Making those big casseroles with cream of blank was doing nothing for my hips and 3) I find cream of blank rather disgusting, the way it slurps out of the can. SLURP! So good-bye cream of ______. Gave it up, haven't looked back. We manage.

So a few Sundays ago, the women's group at church needed a sign-up for a dinner they were hostess-ing. The last thing on the list, oh yes, funeral potatoes. When I balked at bringing them, the Sign-er-upper said, "Oh, it's easy. I'll give you the recipe. It's just hash browns, a tub of sour cream, a can of cream of chicken, and a few other things."

Hash browns, sour cream, cream of chicken. That's nutrition!

I had to explain, with a straight face, that, oh, I could figure out how to make them. I just didn't like to do it. In the end, I found a mix for Scalloped Potatoes at SaveMart, did my duty, and took the dish on time. Hot.

But I didn't eat it.

Blech.

P.S. Eric and the kids liked it though, when I left some for them as I went to deliver it. Later, I will teach my boys that scalloped potatoes should mean real potatoes, some cheese other than Cheddar, and milk.

P.P.S. Let me add, as a final note, that I will use cream of _________. When camping. With a Dutch oven. Then I think it's just fine. But there better be some real vegetables in there.

The vacumm cleaner and the legos. A good place to start.

I'm going to be posting some new stuff on the blog. Still books, but more about stuff.

Just stuff.

I have all these writing ideas, and I need someplace to put them. Seems like this blog is as good a place as any. For example, I've had this confessions trailing around in my head for ages:

I enjoy buying my five-year-old son new legos. It makes me feel good to nurture his spatial development. But I also enjoy vacuuming the legos up on days when I'm sick of picking them up or stepping on them. It's the GRRR! CRUNCH! sound they make in the vacuum cleaner that I find especially cathartic.

See? I just needed a place to write about that.

There might be more of those random things coming. Get ready.

More for 1st grade readers

Time to resume book blogging!

I found more series you might want to try for beginning readers. These might be too easy than what Amy is looking for. I'd put these right with or right before the Julie Jones series difficulty. So see what you think about:

1. The Fox books by James Marshall . . . one is Fox on the Job for example.

2. The Morris books by Bernard Wiseman . . . one is Morris has a Cold.

3. The Henry and Mudge series by Cynthia Rylant. . . one is Harry and Mudge and the Starry Night. You can't always trust Rylant's YA literature, but I'm sure she'll keep it tame with these.

Non-kid fiction to follow soon. I would say "Adult Fiction" but that would imply hubba hubba fiction and I don't do that.