Baja Sauce

 

Little late but here it is. :)

Ingredients

• 2 Tbs olive oil
• 1/2 yellow onion, chopped
• 1 Tbs red bell pepper, chopped
• 1 Tbs yellow bell pepper, chopped
• 1 Tbs orange bell pepper, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 heavy pinch of salt
• 1 mango, diced
• 1 medium orange, juiced
• juice of 1/2 lime
• 1 tsp garlic pepper
• 2 Tbs honey
• 2 Tbs light brown sugar
• 1 habenero, sides cut off, seeds and membranes discarded (unless you like it HOT)
• 1 chipotle pepper, minced (more if you like it)
• 1 tsp adobo sauce (from the chipotles)
• salt and pepper to taste
• 4 to 5 jarred jalapeno slices, minced
• 1 Tbs chopped cilantro
• 1 tsp each, lime and orange zest
• 3/4 to 1 cup light sour cream

Directions

1. Heat olive oil over medium heat in skillet. Add onion and peppers but not garlic. Add salt and sautee over medium heat until tender, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and saute for 1 more minute. Add mangos, and the juice of one orange and half a lime along with honey and brown sugar. Add the sides of the habenero, and the chipotle and the adobo sauce. Simmer over low heat for 3 to 4 minutes. Remove peices of habenero. Add salt and pepper to taste. Place mango sautee in blender and add cilantro, chopped jarred jalapenos, and zest. Puree. Remove 1/2 cup sauce and serve as is. To the remaning puree, add sour cream and blend until smooth and combined.

Footnotes

• For more heat, mince half of the habenero sides and sautee with onions and peppers.

Bad Blogger

 

I have been a very bad blogger these days.  I blame facebook. When you can just type in little tidbits here and there on your facebook status, it hardly seems neccisary to write a big long post.  But I promise, I will try to get something in her soon.. if I even still have any blog followers left.. have you all given up on me yet?  I hope not. :) 

I have pictures to post.. of my garden.  It was a lovely weekend and we finally got most of the gardening I have been wanting to do, done.  My roses have been put in the ground! The only thing left really is Andy Boo’s Apple tree.  But I need to call the gas and water companies to come out here and mark where the lines are so we don’t run into any of those when planting the tree. :)  Andy is really excited about it… we have the spot all picked out and are really hoping that we won’t have any problems with gas or water lines.  OH and I think I am going to replace the tree they cut down in my backyard with a Cherry Willow tree.. JD, isn’t that what you have planted?  I’ve read that a regular weeping willow will destroy our foundation and any plumbing/sewage lines.. and that Cherry Willows are better options for the residential yard.  And they are pink in the spring! :) 

Tonight’s dinner promises to be scrumpy… I’m making Shrimp Tacos.. totally not doing any kind of work on the shrimp though.. I bought a box of premade popcorn shrimps that have already been cleaned breaded and probably fried.. I just gotta heat them up in the oven.  The Baja sauce, however, WILL be homemade, from scratch.  Perhaps that will be my post later tonight. :) 

For now I’m gonna go sit in my beautiful front yard and admire my rose bush that’s in the ground just in front of my cute bistro table, which sits under my huge Ash tree. :)

Happy Birthday Sweetheart

 

Samantha,

Happy Birthday sweetheart.  11 years ago today you touched the life and heart of one of my dearest friends. My heart aches for the fact that I do not get to know you. I miss you, yet never met you.  I wish you were here.. but more than that I wish WE could be THERE. I would imagine Jesus throws the most amazing birthday party.  With chocolate mint icecream cake and butterfinger hot chocolate.  Happy Birthday, beautiful girl!

I love you sweet little girl,

Aunt Marie

Whinese

 

Let’s talk about languages.  The language Whinese specifically.  If you’re a parent, you’ve no doubt encountered this language, used mostly by children.. but a few adults have been known to use it as well. It’s a most annoying language, and virtually un translatable. 

Whinese has been banned from this household.  All requests and/or complaints submitted using the language Whinese will henceforth be ignored.  Furthermore, continued use of the language Whinese may result in dire consequences, depending on the mood of the household leaders (ie Mom and Dad).  

In other words, JASON, when you get your pants out of the dryer and insist that these are NOT the pants you were wearing yesterday.. even though the stain you got on the knee is still there because it won’t come out.. Do not use the language Whinese to profess your contempt for your pants that shrunk a bit in the dryer.  Like they always do.  If you will but put them on and wear them for 10 minutes.. they will indeed stretch back out. Like they always do. 

Whinese is not an acceptable language to use when looking for your jacket, either, JUSTIN. In fact, I would venture to say that there is NEVER an appropriate time to use the language Whinese.  It’s time to put our big boy pants on and act like the almost 13 year old young man that you are. 

And last but certainly not least.  HEATHER AND HANNAH, Whinese is not the language to use when telling me that Sissy took the shirt you laid out for yourself to wear this morning.  Your version of Whinese, mixed with some Twin Talk, is most unusual and I admit, I can not translate it or decode it. 

To avoid further confusion, the only acceptable languages in this house are: American English, The Queens English.. and even a smattering of French and Spanish will be accepted.  But Whinese will no longer be tolerated whatsoever.  Thank you and have a lovely day back at school. 

Daddy Daughter Date Night

 

I totally made it an experience for them.. the getting ready part.  Getting ready for a dance is almost more fun than going to the dance, in my opinion… So I totally went all out for them.. first they took a bubble bath, complete with hair pinned atop their heads in a bun.  Then they put on their bathrobes and got their makeup done.. a little gold/pink shimmery eyeshadow, a touch of mascara, and a bit of pink lipstick.  Then the hair came down from the buns, brushed out and put the gold headbands in.  Used the curling iron to curl it in 5 big sections, then twisted the hair up and clipped it with a gold clip that matched the headbands.. curled lots of individual strands for ringlets, and then sprayed the ehck out of it with hair spray.. And since it was a special night we glittered everything!  I have gold glitter hairspray, as well as pink loose glitter.. both went in their hair.. I gotta say, it really did look very pretty.  The Husband said that every single woman that saw them tonight would stop and say “OOHHHH look at your pretty hair!”.  After that we took one “almost ready” picture of them still in their bathrobes and then they put on their pretty pink party dresses. :)  

I even made them little corsages to this afternoon.. I went to the dollar store and got some fake bright pink gerbera daisies and some gold curly ribbon sprays from the gift wrap department.. some floral tape and stretchy hair ties to use as the wrist bands and I was in business!  They actually turned out quite cute, and I even made The Niece one too. :) So here is the whole slew of pictures I have.. also pictured is The Niece and The Brother.. as well as The Husband, of course! :) Oh and even big brother, Justin, wanted a picture with the little diva’s. He actually told them they both looked very beautiful..and coming from a punk ass big brother, that’s a pretty big compliment. :)

 

 

They had a great night.. I know I still think about and fondly remember the Father Daughter Dances my dad took me to, and I am just SO freaking happy that H&H are getting that same experience.. I hope I made it as magical and special as my mom made it for me. :) 

Busy Weekend

 

Tonight the boys are spending the night at The Brother’s house.  The Niece is at a slumber party, so The Brother invited the boys over to spend the night with The Nephew and play Rock Band all night long.  I’m sure they’re havin a blast.  The Husband went fishing… so that left me and The Pretty Girls to our own devices… *insert evil laugh*  And we went shopping!!  Dress and shoe shopping, to be specific.. for the Girl Scout Father Daughter Dance.  Found the cuuuuuutest dresses for H&H… They love them.. and they twirl out when they spin, so they’re totally excited about it.  The dresses were $50. Each.  *insert heart attack here*.. BUT.. they were 50% off.. Okay, still a bit much… But when I got to the register they asked me if I wanted to apply for a Kohls charge card.. I laughed and said “they won’t give one to me and my crappy credit”.. and the lady tells me “but even if you get turned down, you still get the 30% off your purchase tonight”.. So I say “well then hell yes, lets apply for that charge card!!”.  Totally got turned down.  Wasn’t surprised.  WAS surprised to only spend $36 and some change on two dresses that originally cost $50 each.  Nice, eh?  I thought so!  They wanted to look at Kohls for shoes to go with.. and I told them, “Nope, you got a kohls dress.. you get walmart shoes.” LMAO  Found some cute shoes at walmart.. not the ones I wanted.. the silver ones I wanted to get them only had one pair in their size.. so we went with a light brown pair of ballet flats with gold trim and a flower on the toe.. I think they’ll look okay. :)  Oh, here is a pic of the dress… crappy camera phone picture, but you get the idea:

Pretty, huh?!  The shoes I got them are about the same color as the boots Hannah is wearing in that photo.. That doesn’t look bad, right?? Oh well.. they are lucky they got new stuff to wear and didn’t have to go in an old dress they’ve had forever.  The Dance is tomorrow night and they are super excited and beside themselves about it. :)

And on Sunday the boys all have birthday parties to attend… so it’s a pretty busy weekend.. for everyone but me! LOL  Maybe tomorrow night I’ll go have a girls night with The Bestfriend after The Dance is over at 8pm.  Or maybe I’ll stay at home and geek out on more episodes of The Tudors, the show I am newly addicted to. :)

I can’t hear myself think

 

Seriously. I can’t.  Justin *and* Jason are practicing their recorders.  And I can’t yell at them to stop like I sooooooo want to.  Because they have to practice.  But good grief.  How did The Mother get through this with me? There is not enough advil in the western hemisphere for these screeching high pitched noise makers.

And Lord have mercy on me.. Justin is taking band next year in middle school.  He wants to play either the sax or the drums.  God help me and my ears. LOL