Interesting week of meals

Memorial weekend, well the last week we have done a lot of take out / eating out, mostly due to time constraints whilst trying to construct a new shed in the backyard for the girls toys and misc stuff.  This week we are back on track last night we topped off the end of the weekend (yep hubby working Memorial Day) with a Bistro Steak-Egg Salad, YUM!  I am taking a chance with this weeks meals and decided to use the meal planner for a lot of the delights for dinner this week.  Now the draw back of the planner is it only does 5 days of meals that leaves me to muddle through for 2 days, as it's our turn to cook I decided to finally do our trip around the world.  This time we are flying off to Laos (figuratively speaking), I will spill the full meal plan tomorrow and let you know what our taste buds thought of the experience.

Getting up to date

Had a blip the last time I tried to make a post due to the site being down, I have to admit that was very very annoying!  So it has been longer than I intended since I last posted something useful.

The big event since my last post was a three day meal extravaganza involving a standing rib roast, sherry trifle and yorkshire pudding.  A few months ago whilst at my girlfriend's salon (Beautiful From Head To Toe) my husband noticed a meal in an issue of Wine Spectator.  We have been planning ever since to attempt this gourmet delight inviting said girlfriend and her family over to partake in the feast.  I started on the Saturday making a pound cake for the sherry trifle continued through to Sunday by making the gelatin and custard layers and having my husband aided by the 2 1/2 year old daughters peeling up the sprouts.  Monday rolled around and 3 hours before putting the meat into the oven I took dutifully took the meat out of the fridge to come up to room temperature.  Now before we go much further I should mention the meat was a 14 lb rib roast from the local butcher not the local supermarket, the difference?  HUGE!  The butcher recommended meat from Painted Hills, and I can say it looked amazing before cooking.  I did a little research and when looking at my recipe decided to go for a rosemary garlic rub omitting the salt so as not to draw the moisture out of the meat.  The roast was place on top of a bed of carrots, celery and onion, toped with some thyme and rosemary.  I seared the roast at 450 for 30 min then cooked it for a further 3 1/2 hours, then let it rest for 40 minutes while we waited on the yorkshire pudding.  The end result a perfect roast with meat that you could literally cut with a fork.

The sherry trifle, tasted great but I think I needed to thicken the custard a little more and whip the cream a tad more too but hey I've not made too may from scratch of those either.  So we have been enjoying the left over beef this week and even the next day the meat was just as tender and flavorful.  Ah not something we do very often but oh so worth it and imo almost as good if not better than what we could afford in a restaurant.

One of the better successes

A few weeks ago I made a three meal rollover, turning roasted pork tenderloin and veggies into a veggie curry the following night, and a black bean chili soup the night after that.  We also had enough left overs to freeze another 2 meals with the curry and chili.  Tonight, given the lack of husbandly assistance I reheated the chili and was reminded again as to what an awesome recipe and how it actually makes the girls want to eat it with the addition of crushed tortilla chips.  Thank you Rachael Ray!  The recipes can be found on the show website if you look up pork tenderloin rollover.  Now note that my hubby is acutely anti beans so I made a smaller portion for him substituting hominy for the beans, it still worked tho my preference is the black bean variation.

We had a trying day with one of the warmer days of this year and me trying to potty train, I got to 3:30 then I just flat out gave up.  I will try again tomorrow, this time I'm going to work with Isabel then on Abigail.  I think Isabel can get it much faster than Abi and who knows maybe Abi will end up learning from her sister.  I hate holding Abi back but she really was having issues, and trying to watch for signs of potty on two kids will cleaning up accidents so wasn't working.  I really was hoping I could do them both at the same time but I think I'm going to just admit defeat and do it at their pace for my own sanity.  Or by the end of the week we are going to be having a very very grumpy Mummy and two confused kids.

Yesterday we did a trip to the Discovery Museum in Sausalito.  I discovered a fantastic drive, Dad I may point you in that direction, by accident...best not to ask really.  Anyway, packed lunch and stroller and we did OK.  I think Jennifer had a better time of it, but I'm still trying to learn and figure it out.  I really could use a small cooler bag that fits in the stroller for these kind of outings.  I love my Costco one but...it is large bulky and just doesn't fit with the stroller, and the stroller is a must for these kinds of trips when solo outing with the kids, I could have omitted the diaper bag but I was just not entirely comfortable with that idea for this outing but the reality is I could have gone back to the car for extra clothes etc if need be.  I guess I'm still a Mum in training...maybe I should get some L plates for my back when out and about hehe.

Tour de local parks

Recently I've been stuck in a rut with parks, so I'm now making it my mission to try a least one new park a week.  I have to say parks vary greatly...living where we do on the border of Pleasanton I allow myself to use parks in both Livermore and our neighboring city.  Some designers need to be stuck in their head...seriously rocks and water in a play area with tots?!!!  Yeesh 101 NO HARD SURFACES!! However when I reflect on the playgrounds of my youth, kids today have it positively cushy, so maybe I should relax a bit more when we are there and let the girls be girls and get their scrapes and wounds.  But as a mother of two I cringe.  The problem when you have multiples and at such a young age, they want to explore, they still have a had concept of coming to Mum when asked and I worry that if an emergency were to happen I could be in real trouble.  Maybe I should get a single seat stroller or something to strap a child in I'm in debate on that one as one stroller means I have to still push and have hands free for the other child.  When I figure out the solution I'll let you know, but I think a stroller is going to be a must soon for a time out, at least I can put them in there strap em in for a time out while I deal with the other, maybe...

My favorite weather...

It's finally perked up here weather wise over the last week and we have had an absolutely stunning weekend.  One of the major advantages of the climate here, great weather lots of sun, a lovely shady backyard, what more can we ask for?  Oh yes did I mention free afternoon concerts while the 'boys' next door practice with their band and a glass of pima and lemonade.

Dinner this next coming week posed a challenge as James will be working a modified swing shift for four days, it means dinner without Dad for those days and not sure how much he will see of the girls during that time, however we do get a three day weekend...fortunately I need to run my freezer down big time as it's groaning at the seams, so left overs and quickie meals will be the order of play, on top of that the weather is warming up so as much as possible I don't want to be using the oven, another challenge.  I'm lucky I guess at least my girls love salad!!!  Yay, makes life easy as I can throw that in for a couple of meals, oh and whatever I cook has to be heatable up by James as he will need to eat when he gets home.

Now right now we are in the process of renovating our back garden...it's a slow process as James is doing the work himself, the plan is to level off the area by the side of the house and pave the area so we don't have to spend a few weeks every spring pulling weeds before we can use the space.  This will also provide a flatter surface for the grill, and we plan on locating it out there permanently.  We would also like some room for a chair or two so however has grill duty can sit down and relax in the shade of the house, we might as well make the most of the weather here during the summer right?  I cannot wait till the space is done and I can start my summer grilling ideas.  I will be using a lot of last year's favorites, and trying to find new ones for this year.  For those that missed it last year I was able to cook nearly everything outside last year from meats, veggies, fish to desserts, the endless possibilities really took hold, so as the outside is more or less my kitchen for half the year it only seems prudent to make it more habitable for outside use.

Oh and soon we are going to be doing research on freezers.  I hate my freezer design...I really do, shelves blow chunks as you have to stack things, and it makes it impossible to get to items in the back.  Seriously stop putting shelves in freezers!!  Let's go baskets so I don't have an avalanche every time I want something.