Weekend food and something awesome for the kitchen

It's Friday and I could not be more relieved. Woke up to over 100 e-mails in my work inbox this morning. Turns out some genius sent an email in error to more than 7,500 people. That prompted many of them to hit "Reply to All" to say stop sending the e-mail (really...does that make any sense?). If it weren't 13 March, I would have thought it was April Fool's. But it is Friday the 13th. Nice. I do have to give a shout out to my brethren in the UK - many of them used the never-ending chain to see who had managed to get tickets to Michael Jackson's train wreck/money grab concerts in London later this summer. Very funny comments back and forth. But what the heck is the UK's obsession with Michael Jackson?! That can't be healthy.

So glad the weekend is just about here. It means I can get some focus off of work (it's just oppressive right now) and on to food. Not so much to eat but to create. It's an outlet. I've been obsessing all week about making a breakfast pizza. I've been scouring for recipes and have decided to blend the best of what I've found when I tackle this tomorrow morning. Whole wheat crust, salsa base, scrambled eggs, some kind of hot sausage, mozarella - you get the drift. We'll see how it turns out.

That breakfast pizza plan nearly got derailed when I happened upon the following on the Serious Eats food blog:

MUFFIN TOPS!

Everyone knows that the best part of the muffin is the top. You'll recall the "Seinfeld" episode that was all about that...as well as the issue of the leftovers, or the stumps. It was brilliant and so is this muffin tin. It's available online here but I am also going to see if I can't find it at one of our overpriced kitchen/foodie stores here in our Chicagoland suburb. Who needs to watch the Chicago River being turned green when you can try and track down this gem? I'm on it.

Some Amazing Race and some amazing sushi

Sundays are anything but a day of rest in our house. They are busy days full of churching. I know that's not a word, but I don't know how else to describe it. It's chock full o'church. One of the best ways to decompress for me is a hit of "The Simpsons" and thanks to the miracle of the DVR, I can record "The Amazing Race" and not miss a thing. Tonight's episode of America's favorite family did not disappoint. As soon as it was over, it was over to the DVR to watch TAR, which was already halfway done. CAL joined me to watch the slog through Siberia that was tonight's episode. This show is incredible - so much you get to see and I like how the producers aren't spending as much time in the airports and more time in the locations once the racers get there. While I won't give it all away, the idiot blondes who fly for Southwest partially repaired the damage that they've done to the reputation of flight attendants everywhere. Not completely but it was a start tonight. Luke, the deaf racer, and his mom proved to be a bit sly. I won't spoil it further. I'll just say again that this is an AWESOME show.

Well, during said viewing, the door bell rang. CAL answered it and a few minutes later she appeared with a bunch of sushi in her hands. Some good friends had made sushi and had some leftover and asked themselves who would eat it and my name hit the radar. They were really cool to think of me and bring that over. Totally made my night after a really long day. Here's a shot of my amazing race meal:

Thanks to the restless family for bringing the sushi! Awesome!

So now a new week begins. I hope it goes quickly. I'm tired thinking about it already.

The weekends are getting quieter

The stunningly patient SML and I are entering into a new phase of our family life and that phase hit home again this Saturday evening. Our three children are growing up. Our Lady of BYU has left the building (although she will be home for the spring and summer in about six weeks), CAL is sixteen and getting out with friends more and more and the Boy is doing a little of the same. Tonight, CAL is out hearing some friends play a gig in another one of Chicagoland's fine suburbs and the Boy is at a Bat Mitzvah celebration for one of his school friends. Hence, we are alone tonight. Time seems to be creeping with everyone out. It did give us the opportunity to make our beloved alfredo prosciutto pizza (the fresh basil in it is the bomb) and over dinner, we laughed at the silence in our house and started joking that we will really be empty nesters sooner rather than later.

Weird, huh? It is. I am more than ready for my kids to grow up and go out into the world. I think we've prepared them well and there's still time make them even more ready, but the question is, what are the stunningly patient SML and I going to do? We're looking forward to the challenge, but would welcome suggestions. We've got some time though.

Today's been nutty. It started early (7AM) for me with training meetings at church that went til nearly noon. Then it was off to another 'burb to pick up the Boy and some buddies from the Bat Mitzvah they'd attended. While I was doing that, the girls made the heinous Costco run. That gave the Boy and I a chance to go to the greatest Israeli place ever, Naf Naf Grill, for lunch. My chicken shawarma pita was amazing and the Boy's falafel rocked. We've become regulars at this place. The owners are really friendly and came out of the kitchen to talk "shop" today. After that, it was haircuts for the both of us at the local Hair Cuttery/Hair Barn/Hair Clips/Hair _________ (insert descriptor). The Boy's stylist was a raging Chatty Cathy and she asked what he had for lunch that day and he tells her falafel, to which she says, 'Oooh, I love waffles! Did you have strawberries on it?' Proving that he is as much his mother's son as his dad's, he played along, describing the fruit he had on his "waffle." I would have told her otherwise. It was pretty funny.

It's been a good day. Nice cap to a long week. Ready to start another one.

Day 58...a near breakdown

Last week was a bit of a blur as I spent Monday through Thursday in Mexico City. My Facebook page was abuzz with my constant updates on my taqueria exploits. Got home late Thursday and then had to go into the office Friday, which was wholly unpleasant. Friday night was going to be catchup night but instead, we decided to go out to dinner and get caught up as a family. This was a mistake - not getting caught up - but making the decision to go to dinner on a Friday night around 630PM in one of Chicagoland's western suburbs. Suffice to say, we wound up at a branch of the Corner Bakery that isn't on a main drag. Anyway, it was good to get caught up with the stunningly patient SML, CAL, and the Boy. To complete the night, we headed over to the local fancy-pants Target to do some last-minute grocery shopping for Saturday's slog (500 mile round-trip) downstate. Nothing, and I mean nothing, says good family fun like a Friday night trip to the Target. And that's when it happened.

The stunningly patient SML, CAL, and the Boy were in the snack aisle debating the virtues of Twizzlers versus Skittles as road snacks and I could take it no longer. So I moved on. Innocently. As I rounded the corner, heading toward the butcher's counter in search of pastrami, it hit me. Hard. An end-cap piled high with it. Twelve pack after twelve pack of it. I thought that they head ended distribution of it in Chicagoland. They haven't. It's back. What is it? See for yourself:
Diet Pepsi Vanilla, you cruel, cruel temptress

I stopped dead in my tracks. The sight of those cases piled up, and ON SALE no less, was almost more than I could take. Friday the 27th was day 58 of my self-imposed life without caffeinated beverages. I'd done so, so well. Nary a sip. And now for me, the mother of all temptations, was staring me in the face, calling my name like there was no tomorrow. And it was cold, I mean unpleasant Chicagoland cold Friday night and the DPV is the stuff of spring and summer. It evokes all the goodness of the best times of the year. Just one can would have sent me into a spring-like euphoria that would have been all kinds of awesome. So what was I to do? Succumb to the sweet siren song of the DPV (but I wasn't certain how I was going to get it bought without my family knowing - I knew my line about a charitable donation to a food pantry wasn't going to fly) or, and sorry Lance Armstrong for 'borrowing' this line, live strong and let it go. Ultimately, I rejected the tempter's snare and just walked away. Oh but what a long walk...I even found myself turning back to look at that end-cap, kind of like Lot's wife in the Old Testament. Now as we know, that glance back ended badly for her. I'm pleased to report that I was not turned to a pile of salt as I looked back.

So it's now another quiet Sunday morning here. Of course, it's freezing. I've managed to get all caught up from being gone. I've read all my foodie blogs this morning, which was a mistake, as I am fasting today. We've recovered from our trip yesterday downstate - took a bunch of kids from Church to Nauvoo. Quite an experience - first time I'd been there, let alone driven down there Illinois is a whole lot of nothing once you get outside Chicagoland. Iowa is worse. Glad to be home and ready to see what a day full of getting religion brings.