One of the billion reasons why I love my husband

Friday was supposed to be fun. I took a vacation day with nothing but a dentist visit on my itinerary for the day. Friday morning I wake up...blech. I want to puke so I do. I am so sick and my stomach is in knots. The pain was what woke me up. I cancelled my teeth cleaning. I was in such a panic about not wanting to throw up again I pretty much told the receptionist that I was clenching my teeth to not boot while I was on the phone with her. I texted Jim and told him I was sick (in case he was too). I went back to bed and only woke up from pain. Aside from that I slept until almost 4 that afternoon. I finally decided to get up and take a shower.

Around 7 or so, Jim came home. I was afraid to make anything in case I had Ebola, so I suggested that he order out. He was concerned that I didn't want anything, but all I had managed at that point was a granola bar and some pretzels so I was fine with not eating. When the food showed up, he had ordered a sub and some chicken fingers. He asked me if  I wanted to try a chicken finger and I said sure, why not? It was heaven. It was hot and chicken-y and delicious. He let he have the rest of them. And for the first time that day, I didn't feel sick.

He was my hero that night. His generosity and love made me feel better. He is always generous and loving. And that is just one reason why I love him.

Saturday Slow Cooking

Today, I am making Slow Cooker Beef Stroganoff. It's one of my all time favorite slow cooker meals. Here's the list of ingredients:

      Slow Cooker Beef Stroganoff

• 1.5 - 3 lbs stew beef
• 1 large onion, quartered and sliced
• 1 container Philadelphia Cooking Cream in Savory Garlic
• 1 teaspoon chopped garlic
• 1 can sliced mushrooms (not in this house, but you might be able to sneak them in, in your house)

1. Throw the stew beef in the bottom of the crock pot. You can brown it in advance but I am too lazy to use another pan.
2. Throw the onions on top of the beef.
3. Dump the cooking cream on top of the onions 
4. Cook on LOW for 7-8 hours. Don't peek because it looks gross.
5. After 7-8 hours, open the lid and stir. The beef will shred up and everything will mix together.
6. Serve over egg noodles (or any noodle you want)

Try this. It's a tasty and simple cold weather meal to make. I chose to make it today because it was supposed to snow but the weather people lied and now the dusting we got is already gone. I want to be a meteorologist because you basiaclly get paid to be a bad psychic.

Happy Cooking!
Dana

Cat Hair, Cat Hair, Everywhere...

                                                     Our Kitties: Littles, Emma, Pollie and Rollie                     

Our 4 cats shed hair like they get paid to do it. It's annoying mostly because I don't like to clean. Our socks always look like they have built in slippers at the end of the night. It pisses me off, yet I kind of don't care at the same time. Why? Because our cats are awesome. They're like people, with attitudes and fights and even eating disorders. One of the biggest reasons why I like to cook in the slow cooker is because I get a no-cat-hair-guarantee once the lid is on. Freaking cat hair all over the keyboard as I type. But seriously, they are awesome. Every time we get really into a TV show, we discuss which cat best fits what character and why, we have pretend conversations with them (and yes, we both do cat voices) and when Jersey Shore is on, we hold them up and make them fist pump to house music. And they don't even care. I think they secretly like fist pumping.

One thing that's funny is that I never refer to them as kids...I never talk to them and refer to myself as Mommy or Jim as Daddy. I know that most people do but I don't. Maybe that's because I talk to my sister every morning on my drive to work and hear what it's like to actually be a mommy, and I can tell you it's not even close. My sister would never ignore her daughter's puke on the floor, waiting for her son to come eat it. Blech...I totally do that with the cats. Picking up cat puke makes me gag because the paper towel always soaks through and it's warm and wet and super nasty. So I leave it for a while to see if one of the other cats wants to snack on it. They always do. There must be something tasty about hot cat food because I swear they wait for each other to rowlf so they can enjoy their hot snack. I hope no one calls the ASPCA on me.

Did I mention that I'm allergic to cats? My life consists of a daily battle of hives, itchy eyes, runny nose, and nagging cough. I try to keep them out of the bedroom when we sleep so I have one sanctuary free from cat hair. Except for the fact that we let them in the bedroom every night to knead the blankets. So, I basically sleep on a pile of cat hair every night. So much for a cat hair free sanctuary.

Whatever. They're too much fun to worry about the puke and the hair. Life's too short and our pets' lives are even shorter. So enjoy them while they are with you. You can always clean some other time :)