One Week Countdown

I have not made this announcement before for fear of losing my 3 readers out of jealousy. But here it goes: One week from today, I will be on a plane headed for Hawaii. Now before my 3 readers get to up in arms, let me remind you of 2 things:

1) Most of you live in the south where it will not be 1 degree this Monday morning, and

2) I will post lovely pictures that will bring joy and happiness to your life even if you couldn't be there yourself.

In my excitement I have taken to online shopping since it's not like I can get the right equipment for Hawaii at this time of year in the frozen tundra. I bought a swimsuit and some new sandals.

The Best Oatmeal Ever

I realize that this is turning into a bit of a foodie blog. My apologies, but there isn't a lot else to do up here in the winter time besides cook. I am a fan of oatmeal in the winter time, here is how I make it using the fewest utensils possible.

1/2 cup oatmeal in a bowel.

One cup milk. (I have been using rice milk due to breathing issues, but use the real stuff if you can.) Use the 1/2 cup filling it twice.
Grab a big handful of dried blueberries or Crazins and put them in there. (Do you like by fluffy fleece robe? See the sleeve in the picture?)
Microwave for 1and a half minutes.
Using the spoon you will eat with, get some brown sugar and put it in there. I find 3 spoonfuls to be adequate. Breakfast will never be the same.

A Christmas Feast

This is a bit late, Christmas is over and Mr. M grew tired of waiting for me to take down the tree and did it himself. But we did have a tasty Christmas meal for the two of us.

I roasted some lamb with potatoes, but I should have spent more money on the lamb as it was a bit fatty.

Here is my lovely spinach gratin. It was good, but if you use the Barefoot Contessa recipe, use only 4 boxes of spinach instead of 5.

Throw in some provincial tomatoes, and we had a very nice meal.

I also made a chocolate moose for dessert, but I forgot to take a picture of it.

Adventures in Chili

Every Christmas Eve at my parent's house, they make chili. I wasn't there this year, but I can tell you exactly how it went down.

Mom: Puts raw onions in the chili because that's how my parents like them. (I never liked onions as a child, I have since discovered that I like them, just now on the verge of raw.) And here is where it gets good. She doubles the amount of spices because she is thinking about how my dad doesn't think he has eaten unless he can't feel his tongue at the end of the meal. Mom wanders out of the kitchen to let the chili simmer.

Dad: Wanders in and thinks that there is no way mom could have put enough spices in the chili and besides his sinuses need to be cleared out. So he dumps some more in. Dad wanders out to watch whatever sporting event is on TV.

Mom: Comes back in and remembers all the leftovers from last year and thinks that it must be because she didn't add enough spices. So she dumps some more in.

End Result: Dad is crying by the end of the meal and loves it. The rest of us are wishing we had a fire hose handy and have mostly subsisted on the peanut butter crackers. We can't feed it to the dog because she won't even eat it.

Lest you think I am joking, I have watched them do this dance many times. Well tonight I made some chicken chili from a Barefoot Contessa recipe. I figured I would be safe since the woman isn't afraid of spice, but she knows when to quit. One problem, I halved the recipe except I forgot to halve the spices, and what I ended up with was very close to my mom's chili. An avocado mashed up in a bowel and some tortilla chips made it eatable, but sure brought back some scary memories.