Scramble on Over

I love this coffee mug my mom got me from Cracker Barrel yesterday. They have super cute breakfast themed merchandise right now, so if you're like me and love the smell of crisp morning air mixed with coffee and bacon in the mornings, run to your nearest Cracker Barrel for some dishes that celebrate morning glory.

If you're looking for a podcast...

Sundays are my favorite.  Put aside the sometimes mad rush to feed and dress the girls, take out the dog to pee and make it to church on time, and I love Sundays.  I love the anticipation that builds before Sunday school, knowing that when I walk out it'll be with a new little nugget of knowledge.  It's like those bite size Snickers bars, a perfect little treat.  Okay, so sometimes when the knowledge is owning up to something, maybe it's not always so treat-like, but I eventually appreciate it.

It's sort of sad when Sunday nights roll around.  The thrill of the day winds down and the week starts to start.  James will leave to work the next morning and the girls and I will restart our own routine, and life goes on.

I suppose the problem (if you can call it that), is that the pastor, Ken Whitten at Idlewild Baptist, is amazing.  The man can deliver a sermon.  He really is just gifted at delivering a message.  And I can fully appreciate using the term "gifted" because I have sat through other preacher's sermons and in the middle thought to myself, bless this man's heart but I am so bored.  Sometimes a preacher can have a good sermon, but if there's poor delivery, man, people can lose focus and totally miss a message that isn't even bad!

All that to say, you should consider subscribing to the Idlewild podcast on iTunes.  If you're like me and enjoy listening to various thought leaders and preachers throughout the week, Pastor Ken would be a good addition. 

Glow in the Dark Pacifiers

MAM glow in the dark pacifers.

So, if you're ever in that stage of life where everyone  is pregnant at the same time (since they all planned it in college...just kidding...kind of), you'll need to do your friends a favor and add to whatever baby shower gift you give them, a MAM glow in the dark pacifier. Scouring the bassinet/crib while half comatose for a tiny magical instrument that will soothe your baby back to sleep is the pits.  These suckers (ha, literally), glow, making it that much easier for everyone to get their precious sleep.

No, really, just do yourself a favor and stock up now.  Go ahead and get them the ones for babies 0 to 6 months and the ones for babies 6 to18 months.  Also, when Gilt has a sale on SkipHop diaper bags, buy them.  They are the best out there.  I have two Kate Spade diaper bags that pale in comparison practicality-wise, but more on that later.  

Skip Hop studio diaper bag.  Best ever.

But back to the suckers, MAM has been Paloma's pacifier of choice.  She loves them.  Isabella would take an Avent or MAM, but Paloma never liked Avent or Nuk pacifiers, just MAM.  She sees us put one in the shopping cart and wants to exchange the one she has in her mouth for a new one.  And if we're buying a pair to replenish lost pacifiers (which I swear are in cahoots with the missing socks of the world, all sitting there, laughing at us), she screams until we open the package and give her one.  And, yes, we gladly appease the teething, screaming toddler, thankyouverymuch.

Seriously though, James tells total strangers to buy MAM stock.  I think we may have spent around $800 on just pacifiers since she's been born, and I think that may be a gross under-estimation.  Then again, he has a wife that's major ADD, so maybe not every mom misplaces or lets her child lose pacifiers as often as wifey misplaces her brain.  

Green Chile

Bear with me here, I have a much deeper post in the works. This one is just quicker to draft while I have a sleepy baby pawing at me from the other end of our breakfast bar stool.

My mom is visiting for a few days and one of the things I love to do most when she's around is cook.  She's phenomenal.  She seasons according to smell.  It's amazing.  James is also a natural in the kitchen, and a bit experimental.  Most of the times it turns out delish (then there was that time he added honey to corn).

Since I'm not quite yet comfortable in the kitchen when it comes to just whipping up amazing food from whatever I have stashed in the pantry, I absolutely adore Martha Stewart's Everyday Food magazine.  The best part (if you own an iPad): As a monthly subscriber to the print edition, you can also access the digital version through the Everyday Food app. They just recently made the digital version free to their paid print subscribers.  Heaven.

Anyhow, I had a hankering for comfort Mexican and was pleased to rediscover this great, green chile recipe in Everyday Food's October 2011 digital issue.

On making the following super-delicious dish, I have the following nuggets of wisdom to add (and to Mexicanify it a bit more.  I'm totally qualified):

1.  Season the pork with garlic salt and pepper before (or right when) you throw it into the heated oil to brown.  This was my mom's idea and she was right on.  Seasoning the pork while it's browning will add flavor to the actual meat when you bite into it, otherwise it tastes a little bland, unless you wait and have it the next day, which is what we did.

2.  Sub a can/bottle of Mexican beer for part of the recommended amount of water.  (Thank you, James.)  I'm not an expert cook, so I'm still a bit of a stickler for sticking to the printed recipe.  As such,  I measured the can of beer as I  poured (pretty sure the can of Corona came out to a 1 1/4 cup), and added a 1 1/4 of water since the recipe calls for 2 1/2 cups of water total.

3.  Add a 15.5 oz (or more) can of black beans to the pot once you're ready to partially cover it to simmer.  This was also James' idea.

4.  If you happen to have Mexican rice around, throw that into your bowl before or after you've served yourself.  It adds to the chile's heartiness. 

Without the black beans and rice, the chile (in our collective opinion) lacked the heartiness chile is supposed to have. The recipe is part of a "chile throwdown" between four of the magazines cooks/editors.  James didn't think it had much substance to be chile if it was just green sauce with pork. 

So you see, this blog brings you all sorts of random nuggets of wisdom.  I'm like a box of chocolates.