Ok I get it; you want food and drink recipes.  And nothing makes me happier because I love to cook (and drink). Thanks for your feedback.  I am listening and other exciting changes will be launched very soon, so stay tuned!  I can’t wait to share them with you.

Well the summer has officially begun.  When I got home from work I quickly gulped down supper and force fed the kids, then threw on their cleats in record time.  Soccer started at 5:45 and it was now 5:52.

David took Colin to CBL and we coordinated who would pick up who and how I would get to my 7:30 meeting. 

I survived last summer by making my meals ahead of time, usually doubling the recipe so that I could freeze the rest for the following week.  When David and I got married he told me that his only requirement of me was that I don’t serve left-overs.  Since then, he’s added to his list of requirements.  A-hum.  Anyway, I don’t consider what I make as left-over, and what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him. 

So here is my recipe for Saucy Beef.  I’m telling you, this is the best dog-done thing you’ll ever make!  And having a serving ready in the freezer is great for busy nights, or when someone you know is having a baby or an operation.  It takes a while to braise the beef to fork tender, so allow yourself the time.  I do it when the kids are asleep and I’m watching John Stewart and drinking a glass of red.

Here is the recipe.  You will love it!

Saucy Beef

 2 lbs 1 inch thick simmering steak, remember, this is going to braise for almost 2 hours so you don’t have to get top quality meat here.  Save that for the BBQ.

1/4 cup flour

tsp salt and pepper

4 sliced carrots

2 onions sliced

1/8 cup tomato paste

4 sprigs thyme or tsp dried thyme

1 box beef stock (low sodium Campbell’s is my favorite)

2 tbsp or so olive oil

 Put flour and salt and pepper in a plate mix well. cut the beef in roughly 3 inch length chunks and cover all of the pieces in the flour mixture.  Heat one Tbsp of oil in a deep pot over medium heat.  Brown all the beef on both sides.  Get them good and brown, that’s the flavor.  I sometimes intentionally burn pieces.  Remove from pot to a plate.  Add the second Tbsp of the oil and the sliced onions and carrots.  Sauté approximately 5 minutes.  Add the tomato paste and stir until combined.  Add the beef and the remaining juice left on the plate to the pot as well as the beef stock.  Add the thyme, cover and simmer over medium heat or in a 325 degree over for one and a half hours.  The beef will be fork tender and you can then tear in apart with two forks.  Once cooled, I’ll put in Tupperware for the freezer or the fridge.  Just reheat in the oven on microwave.  Makes 2 family sized portions, and because of the gravy like sauce it’s great served with mashed potatoes OR these scallop potatoes. 

 These are my favorite and what’s great about them is that they take just 1 hour to prepare.  Admittedly, I do these the night before too.  I call them weeknight scallop potatoes because they’re pretty quick to make.  There’s no layering them to look pretty.  You just plop them in a buttered ceramic dish and patiently wait for the deliciousness to be ready.  They’re creamy, tender and perfect for those 3 days in a 30-day cycle when we all crave carbs.  You know it’s true.

 Creamy Weeknight Scallop potatoes.

 6 potatoes (russet are good)

1 Spanish onion thinly sliced.

2 Tbsp flour

1 teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon pepper

2 cups or so milk

butter for the top and for the ceramic dish.

 Slice 2 potatoes per adult, 1 per kid, we do 6 potatoes.  Rinse and pat dry.  Toss with 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour, one thinly sliced onion, a teaspoon of salt and ¼ teaspoon of pepper.  Plop in a buttered ceramic dish.  Top with a tablespoon of butter.  Then pour in milk until it is level with the potatoes.  Bake in a preheated oven for 45 minutes at 375 until the potatoes are tender and the milk has turned thick and creamy.  No joke, I finished what was left in the ceramic dish with a fork like a caveman. 

 And because y’all like to drink so much, I thought I’d sacrifice my sobriety to tell you about my new favorite beer.  Coincidentally it goes really well with the beef and potato recipe I just gave you, thou red wine goes much better.  It’s Cracked Canoe.  It’s a Moosehead beer, and I’m typically a Keith’s girl when drinking domestic (Stella when drinking import), but this is a decent beer.

Meat, potatoes and beer, it just doesn’t get better than that.

So-

True to my dramatic style, I mentioned that I have a big announcement in my last post.  It’s less like a big announcement as it is a huge favor.  But if I know my peeps (and I think that I do), you’ll not disappoint.

I learned a lot from the conference.  I learned that we are doing a lot right but we can be serving our viewers better.  You, there, you’re a viewer.  And you probably want more than what southshorenow.ca is providing.  I am guilty. I’m a web surfer and follow about a dozen blogs but aside from adding food, pictures and the occasional curse word, I haven’t applied what I like in a site into this one.

That is about to change.

And this is where you come in.

See, we have a great thing here.  About five-hundred like minded (or semi like minded) people come together each week.  But I think you’re all far more brilliant that I am.  I sometimes don’t talk real right, and while some of the issues that we face are similar, many of you haven’t had your son wipe his ass with your toothbrush.  Just sayin!

So, we’re going to launch a place for us to share thoughts on kids, recipes, good play groups, or great sales on sneakers. Whatever we may want to talk about.  Because this isn’t all about me and more about you, I need you to tell me what you want. Comment by telling me what’s missing.  Do you want more food recipes?  Health and wellness advice?  Do-it-yourself-projects? More crazy-ass kids stories to make everyone feel better as parents?  More giveaways? More video? Talk about sex and how to want to have it when you’re exhausted (I’ve got a good trick that I’ll share later).  Anything and everything.  

And because you know I love a good giveaway, clearly this is worth a good one.  And because I love surprises, I’m not going to say what it is, but I will say that I just came back from Montreal, where Heaven (as in St. Catherine’s street), was a block away from our hotel.  Yeah…it was bad!

Please offer up some suggestions and you’ll be entered to win. I’ll be drawing on Thursday at 5pm.

Thanks for your help.

It’s 7:30 am in Montreal.  I have a breakfast in a half an hour where I will be riveted by industry leaders and my lips are still red from last nights awards dinner and hospitality suite.

And while I am now completely sober, I am drunk with information from this conference.  Excited and overwhelmed.

I’m having one of those moments of clarity when I’m reminded that I am right where I’m suppose to be.  I love this industry, and more importantly than that, I love where we’re going.  I do not view this new era that newspapers face as a challenge, but as an opportunity.

I have a big announcement to make next week.  Huge.  Well maybe it’s not huge, but it is in my world.  Keep in mind, that in my world, walking into H&M was a huge moment in my life.  One where I think I saw God, or at least a figure that looked like him.  So you can gage my huge from that.

I gots’ta go check out.

A friend of mine was getting ready to go on vacation without her children and asked me how I coped without them when I went to Cuba a couple of months ago.  I said ‘lots of booze’.  She asked how the kids were able to cope, and I said ‘bribery’.  And I wasn’t kidding. 

I gave each boy a gift to open each and every morning that I was away and wrote a little message.

 Most of them were cheap little things like bubbles, hockey cards and little games from the dollar store and if you’re one of those types that says, “Not the dollar store!  That stuff will be in a landfill,” I say, “T’yeah…but it only costs a dollar!” 

 I did splurge on sneakers for one of their gifts, but they needed them, so that it how I justified it.  And really, I justify it because it took their mind off the fact that I wasn’t there.  It seemed to work, because they were excited about what surprise they’d open next.

 And I thought I was a genius.

 I kind of forgot that I have 2 conventions in May that I am away for.  For my first convention in Montreal, I sat down both boys and told them that I would be away for only 3 sleeps and that I would bring them back something fabulous!

 “But I will miss you too much, Mommy”, said Evan.

“Does that mean just 3 presents?” Colin asked.

Don’t feel bad for me, I did this.

 I found this much more economical way to take their mind off of me being gone, one that I won’t have to re-mortgage to pull off.  I found this adorable coupon book and I took out 8 coupons and wrote a little note and addressed them to each boy.  Coupons like: trade this to stay up an hour past bedtime, trade this for a run to the ice cream store and use this for pajama day all day long, which for Colin, is better than going to Disney world or taking shots on goal against Martin Brodeur.  And the best thing is that this book cost less than $10, which is just as well because when I’m in Montreal, I plan on drinking an eight-dollar coffee each and every day while I walk the cobble stone streets.  Plus since, I will be in the fashion capital of Canada, I’m anticipating I’ll feel self-conscious enough to buy myself some happy.   It will also help to ease the pain of missing my 3 favorite boys. 

 I may blog on location.

Ourevoir (or whatever)

Before getting into this blog post, I must tell you a little story. 

 Before she died, my mother-in-law gave me some insight on what I might be in for by raising boys with David’s DNA.  Stories that were both endearing and disturbing.  One such story was about how, when David was in grade 6, he stole a 40 ouncer of Vodka from his parents liquor cabinet and took it to school where he got a few of his classmates loaded, even sending one to the hospital to get his stomach pumped.  He didn’t drink a drop of it.  It was his way to make friends. 

 See, my DNA is far too greedy to have done that.

 Now back to my blog.  One Sunday Evan wanted to have friends over.  All totaled we had 4 boys and one girl over for baseball, soccer, street hockey and video games.  It was a great day.  I occasionally checked in on them, went down to give them a tray of cookies and lemonade, I’d go outside every few minutes, but for most of the afternoon, I puttered around the house, cleaning and doing a bit of cooking. 

 Later that night, the boys were in bed, I was tiding up the upstairs while David was cleaning up the boys’ playroom when he stumbled upon an empty mickey rum bottle.  We’re not big rum drinkers, in fact, I don’t believe we’ve ever had those little bottles in our house.  For booze, I’m all about buying bulk.  David brought it upstairs to show me what he had found on the playroom floor where our sons had played with their friends all afternoon.  I wanted to wake Evan to ask him about the bottle, but I couldn’t.  I was afraid of what I might say at 11 at night.  I said I’d let it go until morning but I didn’t sleep much that night.

 I immediately thought of the story my Mother-in-law told me about, with David and the Vodka, and I remembered her recalling all the parents that called her upset.  Whenever the phone would ring I had a mild panic attack.

 I was in Evans room waiting for him to get up when he started to rise and rub his eyes.  I thought if I got him first thing in the morning, he wouldn’t have a chance to make something up.

 “Good morning Evan, what’s this”

“It’s a bottle”

“Whose is it?”

“Mine.”

“Why do you have it?” I asked with no feeling in my feet and gasping for air.

“I picked it up during Earthday and I thought it was cool and I so I decided to keep it.”

I felt guilty and stupid.  “Did you put it up to your mouth or anything?  You don’t know what may have been in it, you really have to be careful with this sort of thing.”

“Ah, yeah Mom, I know that.  I’m not stupid,” he said looking at me like I’m a complete idiot.

 And for good reason.  I should know by now that our boys are much smarter than we were. 

 They’ll hide the bottle better.

What happens when you chop cauliflower,

make a cheese sauce,

pour it over the cauliflower,

top it with cracker crumbs and bake it for 30 minutes at 350? Give up?

You get your kids fighting over the last serving of cauliflower. True story.

CAULIFLOWER GRATIN

1 head of cauliflower

 1 Tbsp flower

1 Tbsp butter

1-cup milk

½ cup graded cheddar cheese

¼ cup breadcrumbs or crushed saltines.

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

Cut cauliflower into chunks and boil for 10 minutes until fork tender.  Drain well and put in a greased baking dish.  Melt butter and add flower, stir and cook for 2 minutes until bubbly but not burned.  Add milk and cook for a minute.  Sauce will thicken.  Strain in a bowl to remove any flour lumps and add cheese and salt and pepper and top with crumbs.  Pour sauce over cauliflower and bake in a 350-degree over nor 20 minutes until top is golden brown.  

Two handsome young men deliberated tirelessly over the submissions from last weeks contest.

Can’t you see their concentration with their closed eyes as they pick 3 random pieces of paper?

Congratulations Vicki (#5), Melissa (#8), and Cindy (#13). Your prizes will be at Lighthouse for you to pick up on Monday. If you can’t come in to get them, e-mail me at thennigar@southshorenow.ca and I’ll see that you get it.

I am always amazed that people actually read this blog. This week, this blog actually received more hits than our employment opportunities! Can you believe it??

I was at a party a few Saturday nights ago when the hostess stopped to compliment me on my blog as she was passing out mushroom caps.
“You’re just so funny,” she laughed.

I was all, “shucks, thanks, but it’s not so much that I’m trying to be funny as that this is my life. Kind of like, I might as well laugh so not to cry… and medicate myself… because I feel like I have completely LOST CONTROLL BECAUSE MY KIDS DON”T LISTEN TO ME.” I’m so much fun at party’s.

Then I was at the drug store a few days later when someone from my past, someone who I used to wait on when I was a bartender at the Mug and Anchor Pub, stopped to tell me he read my blog. He’s retired from the navy and I’d say 70 years old. I laughed and then immediately felt awkward. The same awkwardness that I felt at the dinner table after my mother told my father that she put me on the birth control pill.

I can be pretty host in this blog.

Anyway, thanks for continuing to tune in when it would be easier and probably more satisfying to wash your hair instead.

Have you ever felt like you are best friends with the girl at the make-up counter? Well I feel that way about Mercedis.

This past Saturday was my most favorite day ever. I went to HEAT for exercise class, then, I drove to the Bridewater Mall and got a coffee from Tim’s. Then, I skipped to Shoppers Drug Mart, aka the new and improved Heaven.

I went directly to the make-up counter to get help. Turns out that I have a growth on my face, similar to what I had in junior high school when I was 13 and my hormones were raging. They were called pimples then, but I refuse to believe they could be the same thing. I mean, I’m 33 and my hormones are…not raging.

Anyway, I decided that if Mercedis wasn’t there I would ask for her home phone number. Not that others aren’t qualified to deal with a zit, it’s just that with Mercedis, it’s like I’m shopping with a girlfriend.

She was working and I showed her my problem.

“Follow me!” she said confident she could help me. And it was as if she had on a cape and flew through the air with a big “M” on her chest, she was that much of a superhero. After asking me a few questions she recommended a peel by Neo Strata. It was pricy, but I was feeling such desperation, short of handing over my children, I would have given anything. I threw it in my basket, we hugged and I browsed some more through Heaven.

I spent about an hour shopping aimlessly through Shoppers and the Mall savoring my coffee and my hour without the kids. I didn’t even care that I looked (and smelled) terrible from exercise class. I picked up some of my favorite things and I will be giving them away, to you, all of my favorite moms, for a Mothers Day giveaway.

Simply comment by giving a shout out to someone who you think is a great mom. It could be your mom, or your daughter, or even your friend. I’ll be drawing for these 3 little gift bags of happiness on Friday at noon by drawing 3 names out of a fabulous straw hat I just bought at the Super Store to wear on the boat this summer! I will instruct everyone to call me Jackie O.

The gifts are fun and delightful but it’s not like Oprah’s Favorite Things episode, where you hate the winners and have to change the channel because you’re so jealous. It’s not just me who gets like that way, right?

Good luck and Happy Mothers Day to my Mom, Nancy, and my sister, Deanna, who are pretty great moms.

DISCLAIMER** I was not given any money or prizes to name the businesses or products mentioned. I just love shopping for stuff. I cannot be bought!! But if you would like to try you can e-mail me at thennigar@southshorenow.ca.