sunshine and poached eggs

Mar 312009
 

The sun is out today.  There’s even a blue sky.  And I was reminded it’s time to report that we are actually feeling somewhat healthy here at the little pink house.  Yes, we still wake up every morning coughing.  Yes, Merritt’s continuing to fight the continual “bug”.  Yes, we are still exhausted by the end of the day.  But we are feeling more human.  And we don’t have to pack Kleenex every step we take.

Last night we had bacon, fried grits, poached eggs, and homemade English Muffin bread for dinner.  I like grits with butter and salt and pepper for breakfast (thanks to Southern TeenPact friends!), but Merritt was recalling fried grits he’d had once…and so we found a recipe and fried up some grits.  (You refrigerate them for a while so they are cake-like, then dip in egg and flour and fry.)  Yum.  I’ve also become particularly addicted to poached eggs all of a sudden.  Having them again at my parents’ house earlier this month must have renewed my taste for them.  I had to have them again this morning, too.  I mystify my husband, being a person who loves her scrambled eggs literaly browned and crispy, but enjoys a poached egg still slightly runny–with lemon pepper on top, of course.  (You can poach eggs in several inches of salted buttery water if you don’t have a poacher–we use vinegar to help the egg stick together, but I hear the way “good” mothers of old poached eggs is to poach them in milk and then serve the milk over the egg and toast…hmm…)  And Ru is taking after her mother–she adores bacon.  It’s the only meat she will eat, but she thinks it is fabulous, and tries to reach it while I’m flipping it in the pan!  What are we going to do with her?

Now what to make for dinner tonight.  The never-ending question.  I feel like I’ve been eating, breathing, and sleeping YLCF layouts.  I’ve had the current mock-up screenshots on a continual slideshow on my computer this morning (when I wasn’t working on them).  It’s fun, and it’s coming together–I’ll just be glad to have it decided. There are too many options!  And never fear, some of you will soon have some sent to you to ask your opinion, I’m sure!

Off to stir the tomato bisque and make the grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch.  Then time to place our Azure order.  And maybe even hang that load of laundry out in the sun.

Eggs Foo Yung

Mar 302009
 
Ever since I’ve been on my Chinese food kick, my hubby has been asking me to make Eggs Foo Yung.  Well we found out from Marlys’ boyfriend that it is anything but an authentic Asian dish, despite being served at all the Chinese restaurants, but it’s still fabulous–and this gravy in particular is a new favorite of ours.  So for my sissy who’s eating a lot of eggs right now, and anyone else who wants a fabulous Eggs Foo Yung recipe, here it be…
 
Eggs Foo Yung
 
Gravy:
2 T. cornstarch
1 c. water
1 T. peanut oil (this is crucial to the flavor, and not expensive to buy)
1 t. sugar
1 t. salt
1 t. dark soy sauce
1/8 t. black pepper
 
6 (or more) eggs
1/2 c. diced yellow onion
1/2 c. diced green pepper
1/4 c. sliced mushrooms or water chestnuts
1 c. bean sprouts (crucial to the Egg Foo Yung experience–should cost about 50 cents for a meal’s worth in the right grocery store)
1/4 c. finely chopped celery (optional)
1/2 c. chopped chicken, pork, or shrimp (optional)
1 1/2 t. soy sauce
3 T. peanut oil
 
Heat 1 T. peanut oil in wok or non-stick pan.  Stir fry the onion and green pepper for 1 minute, add the mushrooms, bean sprouts, and any other vegetables and stir fry them for 2 more minutes or until just soft. 
 
Bring gravy ingredients to boil in a small sauce pan.  Simmer and stir until thickened.
 
Beat eggs in large bowl.  Add the vegetables, meat, and soy sauce. 
 
Heat the remaining 2 T. oil in the wok.  Add half the egg mixture, creating a round, flat surface (egg pancake).  Once it is firm, flip it over with a spatula and let it cook until done. Cut into quarters (you may do this before flipping, to prevent breakage), and stack on a plate.  Top with gravy.  Repeat for second half of egg mixture.  Makes 2 servings.

the epitome of newsworthiness

Mar 272009
 
We’re all about top headlines here.  Today’s are:
  • I hung laundry out today for the very first time this spring.  Ru stood on the lawn eating a cheese cracker.  Methinks that will be about the only time she doesn’t help me.  Last year she was all over the clothes basket.
  • After nearly three weeks of helping us, my dad headed back home today.  Contrary to popular (jealous) opinion, he really didn’t get to see Ru that much–what with us being gone part of the time and sick nearly the whole time.  He also discovered that Ru’s “other grandparents” don’t see that much of her, despite living so close.  I think he did enjoy spending time with his granddaughter, though, be that a half hour here or there throughout the three weeks.  Ru definitely warmed up to him.  Even sat on his lap throughout several lunchtimes!
  • It’s sunny today.  Happiness.
  • The eye ointment seems to have helped clear up Ru’s eyes very quickly.  The bump on her eyeball is almost gone, and her eyes are much less red.  However, it has blurred my vision so that I feel half-blind and drunk.  I think I’ll just be using it once a day, at bedtime.  I can’t do this bleary-eyed stuff.  You know the billboards and t-shirts that have blurred letters to show what it looks like when you’re drunk?  That’s nearly what I’m seeing the world like (though I do see more clearly, it feels like everything’s bleary, even though I can pick out detail nearly as well as usual–it’s strange).
  • We slept better last night than we have in a while.  I forgot what it was like to get six hours of sleep all together.
  • I’m having fun playing with CSS and layout and design.  I forgot how addicting it could all be.  Now if I could just make the stuff do what I want it to!  And figure out that DNS entry problem…
  • Now wasn’t all that newsworthy?!

the things you can put your brain to while sick…

Mar 242009
 
I can now write in Apache, folks.  Aren’t you impressed with the things I can learn to do while sick?  I may not be good for much other than lying around coughing, but meanwhile I’ve been learning to write in Apache…code, that is.  I’ve been doing mod_rewrites and all that junk.  Scary thing is, I’m actually starting to understand a bit of it–and it looks so much like Algebra, that would shock my parents exceedingly!Slept fairly well last night other than little girl waking up thrice.  I think that last eye tooth is working on coming in, along with everything else.  I’m a miserable bundle of coughs today.  But so goes life.  Ear is starting to feel a bit better.  Hubby says my eyes are clearing up.  Now if only I could stop coughing, I might feel alive again.

Meanwhile, my brain is growing in size.  I tell ya, the things I’m learning…  It’s kinda fun.  But I’ll be glad when we have YLCF entirely switched to WordPress and it’s only maintenance, not figuring out all this brain-stretching stuff.  Thankfully, I don’t have to do all the hard work.  That’s why I have friends with tech-smart husbands!

I finally convinced my hubby to take a daytime Tylenol Cold pill this morning.  At lunch he came home and saw the others sitting on the table, and it suddenly dawned on him why he’d felt so good all morning.  And here he thought he was just getting better.  Amazing the power of drugs.  If only I could take them!  Back to the cough drops, folks…  Talk to you later.

can we say miserable?

Mar 212009
 
So, Ru and I have gunky, red, watery, itchy, swollen eyes.  Merritt is about as near to a sinus infection as you can get without having all the symptoms.  At least Ru has a fever.  Sleep is no relief, because we still can’t breathe when we lay down.  Can we say Miserable with a capital M?  At least Mom had some drops for our eyes, considering it was Saturday morning Ru woke up with the symptoms and they progressed really quickly from one to both eyes.  Not that we’ve been playing “where’s your eye?” and all the other body parts all this time we’ve spent in bed!  And Merritt had gunky eyes a few days ago.  Oops.  So.  Marlys and David are bringing us “Chinese takeout” from their fancy restaurant.  And we’re staying in our pj’s all day.  Trying to get better.  Just not making a lot of progress.  Prayers appreciated.

milestones

Mar 202009
 
Today Ruth Ann ate her first bug (first to my knowledge, at least).  She was chewing on something at Aunt Katie’s this morning, and when I pried open her mouth I took out the majority of what looked like a beetle the size of a winged ant.  She kept crunching away, though, so apparently there was more Mommy couldn’t get.  Like the legs.  Yum, yum.

Second milestone: Ru went potty on the big toilet today at Aunt Katie’s!  Mommy had planned on her taking a nap at Aunt Katie’s and coming home as soon as she woke up.  Somebody, however, had other plans, like playing with the dogs and eating Aunt Katie’s animal cookies and climbing all over Mommy who was on the laptop trying to figure out difficult things like PHP and WP plugins and such.  And eventually that same somebody decided she needed to go potty, so she crawled into Aunt Katie’s bathroom.  Where there was, of course, no little potty.  But for the very first time, when placed upon a big people’s toilet, Ru went potty!  Yay!  Maybe this means we can actually go potty at church and other places without dragging the potty chair around.  (Did I mention we’re going to “dual” potty train our next one on the little potty and being held over the big potty?)

In a few thousand words…

Mar 182009
 

The Girls that Merritt chauffeured everywhere: Bethany, Ashleigh, Natalie, Gretchen, Ruth, and April

and The Chauffeur himself (with his very reliable navigator who actually never had a very good idea of where they were going)

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