For the Love of the Marinade

Anyone who's ever gandered in my fridge knows I love marinades. Just look at the door and at any random time there's at least 4 marinades, plus Worcestershire Sauce, Soy Sauce, etc, etc, etc. So on either the drive to or from the Gretchen Wilson concert the other night Jenn mentioned that when she puts her groceries away at the beginning of the week she puts marinade right on the meat then and it's ready when she's ready to cook it. Hmmmm...

I usually do all the meat shopping at McKinnon's in Windham. I love that place. I buy chicken in bulk and just separate it into freezer bags. This premarinading thing would definitely work for me. Going back to the chicken in bulk, how can you beat this. Just shy of 4 lbs. of chicken tenders for $8.50. Gotta love that. So I buy the chicken today, separate it into 4 bags (you remember the previous post about the kids not eating meat that includes chicken) and put the marinade right in the bag. Seal it up, write on the outside which kind it is and presto bingo it's like having McKinnon's right in my freezer. Love that. Plus it helped empty two of the bottles that were currently in my fridge freeing up some door space for well, more marinades.

By the way our current, or at least my, current fave is Kraft Roasted Red Pepper Italian Dressing as a marinade. It is awesome. Though today I did open a Shanghai marinade that I am anxious to try. I'll keep you posted. Though Jenn did mention she has a new favorite made by Goya that has a Citrus base. We'll have to try that one soon.

Oh and just because I'm loving my new camera here's a picture.

My New Toy

So I've been thinking about getting a digital camera for a while now. Now don't get me wrong I love my Cannon but sometimes 35 mm is just a pain in the butt. It takes beautiful pictures but then I have to have the film developed, scan them into the computer to share them with y'all and so forth and so on. There's more but you get the jist.

So I visited some stores on my vacation and compared brands. I didn't want to spend a lot but didn't want a piece of junk either. I ended up with a Nikon Coolpix L18. It has a 3" LCD screen and it's 8 megapixels. Takes short movies too. Now I can send you pictures of those 2 Beautiful Red Heads whenever I please. Take a gander at a couple of random shots I took this afternoon.

Asian Noodle Salad

A few people asked me at the reunion for this recipe, while I can't remember who exactly asked for it so I'll post it here and you all can enjoy. It's a bit of work but worth it. I did make it the day before so the flavors would mingle (I did try a small bowl right after making it and it was good). Here goes

1 package Asian noodle cooked, drained, and cooled. I didn't use rice noodles but something else that was near that sort of like a spaghetti.

1/2 each of Napa Cabbage (don't take the easy way and use regular Cabbage the Napa is much better) Red Cabbage, both shredded

1/2 bag of baby spinach

1 each red, yellow and orange pepper sliced thin

1 bunch of scallion chopped

1 small bag of bean spouts

1 cucumber (or as Rachel calls then cumumbers) peeled and sliced thin

a handful or more of cilantro depending on how much you like it

Mix all of the above together then make the dressing and mix.

Dressing

8 tbls. olive oil

2 tbls. sesame oil

6 tbls. soy sauce

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 cloves chopped garlic

1 jalapeno diced

3 tbls. diced fresh ginger (I didn't have fresh and use 1 1/2 tbls. out of a jar and afterwards thought it should have had more)

Another hand full of chopped cilantro

Mix everything very well and cover salad

Campbell's Soup Update

Apparently when someone goes into a store and buys an entire line of product they take it off the discontinued list. Well, at least that seems to have happened with the Goldfish Meatball soup at Stop & Shop. From the previous post you'll recall I bough 13 cans at once since they were listed as discontinued and well, Alex loves the stuff. I went back a couple of days later and bough 3 more cans. I happened to be there today and the rack is full and the discontinued sign is gone. Thank goodness!!!

Water Country, Water Country, Have Some Fun!

Admit it, after reading the title you were singing the theme song. So we headed out at about 9:30 am to go to Water Country. Not the bright and early start we wanted so we forgo making lunches and decided to buy something there (more about that later). Grabbed a quick coffee and off we went.

The kids were super excited and honestly we were pretty excited too. The weather looked like it would hold off and we could have a fun day together. We hit the kids area first for some pirate ship fun followed by a family trip down Thunder Falls. That one did not go too hot as Alex began to get extremely nervous as we climber the stairs and by the top was in full out cry mode. We assured him it was safe, we would all be in one giant raft together but he wanted to hear none of it. Once at the bottom Rachel wanted to go on the other side which is a covered slide but Alex was not having it. I took him over to Tahiti Village play area while Allen and Rachel braved the slide again. This could have turned into the theme for the day but we switched it up a bit and Alex began to warm up tot he slides as we went along.

Spent some time at Ollie the Octopus (more kiddie stuff), more slides, grabbed $40.00 worth of barely edible food. Seriously $3.25 for a bottled water? Next time plan better and bring a cooler with lunch! Headed off to the wave pool, lazy river produced more tears (Alex hates going under the waterfall-doesn't like getting his face wet). Watched Allen go down the Geronimo, headed back to the large raft ride which this time Alex did better at. A little more play time at the pirate ship and it was time to head home.

After much discussion we have come to the conclusion that it's not the rides that Alex doesn't like, he's actually afraid of heights. So being that way myself I can completely sympathize with him and was showing him how to climb the stairs without looking around and getting nervous. Definitely seemed to get better as the day went on we just need to remind him. Rachel on the other hand, if they would have let her she would have done any ride in the park. damn those height requirements!

Tomorrow we have Canobie Lake, this should be fun!

I'm on Vacation!!!!

So officially at 5:40something Friday I went on vacation. Yeah!!!! Eleven whole days of NO YMCA! Now don't get me wrong I like my job (Can't quite use the word love like I used to) but everyone needs some time away now and then. I have a tendency to use my vacation time in little spurts never taking a full week. This upcoming week should have been Alex's first week back to school so I took the whole thing off. Well they changed it so we have the whole week to have fun.

And fun we will have. Tonight Gail is coming over and it's date night for Allen and I. Tomorrow we have the football draft with all of our friends followed by me going to the Gretchen Wilson concert with Sarah, JoAnne and Jenn. Monday, if the weather is good, Water Country, Tuesday, Allen goes back to work at LPS, but we are going to Canobie at night with my Dad and Lyn. Wednesday we prepare for camping and Thursday-Monday camping!!!! We haven't camped in about 6 years so this should be fun/interesting. Then next Tuesday Alex goes back to school. He'll be a first grader! We tried on all the uniform stuff today, nothing like waiting until the last minute huh? Everything is good and we are ready.

So I have just one thing to say, YAY!! Vacation!!!

Yipee!!!

So we all know that working at the Y won't make oyu rich. It does however have it's perks. One such perk happened today. The Y, in partnership with the Methuen Y and the Lawrence YWCA, received a 4 million dollar literacy grant to be spread out over 3 years. This is huge for our Y. We're a hurting puppy right now when it comes to expenses and this will cover alot for the preschools.

We are going to have new computers in all the classrooms, each child will be getting their own Leapster to work on phonics, we will have on site counseling for at risk kids and families, training from people at Tufts in a variety of subject matter and the list goes on and on and on.

How does this help the Becotte's other than hopefully some more job security for us. Part of the grant is for education of teacher and they are going to pay for Allen's tuition to college!!!!! Yes I said that right, they are paying for his college tuition. Right now we have Lawrence Public School on the hook for some of it, but we are still waiting on money for last springs semester and they won't pay anything for summer. This grant will cover it all and it's at the school of your choice. If Allen wanted to go to Harvard they'd cover it. My boy could be wicked smart!!!!

Sometimes it does pay to work at the Y!

Campbell's Soup Obsession

Meal time in the Becotte household is a challenge. The kids, Alex is particular, are picky. He turns down food based on site alone, so we instituted the 6 year old two bite rule. When you are six you have to try new foods and take two bites those are the rules. Meat in particular is a tough subject. Alex eats hot dogs (peeled and no ends please) chicken nuggets/tenders, bacon (his favorite meat) and occasionally ham. No red meat, no pork, no poulty, good god no seafood and well pretty much nothing else.

Dinner is tough, and usually results in tears. I refuse to make 2 full meals so kids either go to bed hungry, get a bowl of cereal or choke down something horrible like shake 'n bake pork chops, oh the horror. Alex eats a LOT of soup. Noodle soup that is. One day I bought, by accident, Campbell's Goldfish Noodle soup with meatballs. When he saw those little balls of ground up chicken in his bowl he cried. No way was he eating that. We enforced the 6 year old rule and wait a minute it's actually pretty good. Actually both kids like those little meatballs. So much so that they request the soup.

Now the problem, most stores don't carry the soup. Only Stop & Shop by the Loop does. Market Basket may but honestly I never go there. I hardly go to Stop & Shop anymore either, I shop at Super Walmart in N. Salem and McKinnons Butcher Shop. We swung by the Loop the other night and Alex reminded us that is where is favorite soup. Sure we'll run in and get a couple cans for you. Uh oh, it's discontinued. There are 13 lonely cans on the shelf and we bought them all. So if you are out and about and see Campbell's Goldfish Noodle Soup with Meatballs grab a couple of cans for Alex.

Another Great Green Bean Recipe

So I am hooked on the recipe I posted about a month ago, the green beans with lemon zest and pine nuts. Allen loves them too, minus the pine nuts. That's fine more for me. Well, Jenn had another recipe on her blog from some Pioneer Woman and it looked pretty good. Decided to try it last night, well it's awesome. So good I bought everything again today when I was food shopping and seriously will probably make them again tonight. Allen thought they were okay, he likes the other ones better. The recipe is below. I made mine with the butter and olive oil. Seriously who has bacon fat around?

Fresh Green Beans, One Way
1 lb green beans1 cup chopped onion2 cloves garlic1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper2 tablespoons bacon grease (can substitute 1 T butter and 1 T olive oil)1 cup chicken broth1/2 to 1 teaspoon kosher salt (can substitute regular table salt; use 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon)Ground black pepper
Snap the stem ends of green beans, or cut them off in a big bunch with a knife if you’d like. Just don’t tell Granny. Melt bacon grease in a skillet over medium low heat. Add garlic and onions and cook for a minute. Then add green beans and cook for a minute until beans turn bright green. Add the chicken broth, chopped red pepper, salt, and black pepper. Turn heat to low and cover with a lid, leaving lid cracked to allow steam to escape. Cook for 20 to 30 minutes or until liquid evaporates and beans are fairly soft, yet still a bit crisp. You can add more chicken broth during the cooking process, but don’t be afraid to let it all cook away so the onions and peppers can caramelize.
Have a wooden spoon handy to protect your fair share

Enjoy!