I walk now!

Musicals!

EmilyStyle a random blog I read just wrote this post about musicals. Now it made me think of 10 random facts about the role of Musicals in my life...

1. I love musicals, and I have not watched one or went to one live in a very long time.
2. Matias loves the West Side Story soundtrack and we now have a routine for JETS song
3. I want to host a musical viewing night once a month!
4. My favorite musical is Les Miz, followed closely by Martin Guerre.
5. Joe M. (my first true love:)) broke up with me the day after we saw RENT.
6. I saw Showboat and then stole the soundtrack from my mom and still have it...when i get sad I play old man river and lay on the floor and feel sad (beat that emo kids)
7. When people in middle school would look at my cd collection they would reply....you only have musicals.....(and only Ryan M. would understand the truth behind it all)
8. I characterized most of high school by musicals
9. I wanted to be a musical theater actress, and was going that route in college.
10. I have never been to Broadway (sad and true)

Feliz Cupleanos mi amor

Today my husband is 30!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOW! I want to wish him a super happy birthday!!!!!! I did get his present finished more of that to come later!!!

Sassy pants easter party!

Hi all we back! It was great to get away from the comptuer and tv! I was happy to have some time with my parents and eat some yummy food. See some friends and go to church and say all of my favorite easter sentances. (HE HAS RISEN INDEED) We have no pictures of this but Matias got some rubber boots when we put them on him, he wore them all morning. When they fell off he wanted me to put them back on... So cute!

Here are some lovely photos from easter at my parents house. As Matias grows his sassy pants personality appears more and more. I am ok with this trait. However, it never allows for us to get a decent picture of him anymore.

I am still working on getting the viedo of him posted, hopefully when both computers are operating again I will be able to do so! Until then enjoy Mr. Sassy Pants

Radio Silence

Hi Everyone!

I want to say that I am fasting from the computer until next Monaday! I wish you all a happy Easter. Next Tuesday is Luis's 30th and I am working super hard to finish his gift! We will be in Duluth for the weekend. Look forward to viedo of Matias walking!

Again bless you and bless christ for giving up his life to take away my sins.........

I'm Back and ranting....

I’m back! Sorry food week went down the dumps. But I was out at the guard base for my last 4 days of work! YEAH! I am officially done with the military. I do have plans to post my last two food week entry’s but there are on my home computer. So LOOK forward to that. Beside the military thing, our basement was found out by the good ole city and we are now trying to figure out how to dig out our basement floor 7-8 inches…..apparently when we bought the house the former owner had a stop work order from the city and never disclosed it at selling. WoW I am super glad we decided to finish it so the city could stop us. SO people don’t lie when you sell your house. Oh and get a permit…. Because you will leave two people who have already spent there “construction” budget and will have to figure out how to rip it all out…grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, oh and come up with the money to fix it.

This brings me to my next point, about why I should never break the law, lie, or cheat. I will always get caught! Seriously it is God gift to me. Because when ever I do something somewhat questionable I usually get caught or feel so guilty, I feel the need to confess. For example in High School I took a salt and pepper shaker from Sven and Ole’s after a ski meet. I had it for a year. The next year I returned it to them. I walk up to the counter handed them the shaker and said here, I accidentally took this last year. Thankful they did not care.

I guess if I can do anything as a mother is to make Matias a good citizen and one that will return a salt shaker to Sven and Ole’s. I am proud that I am a bad liar cheat and law breaker. It keeps me real :)

I hope all are well and safe after St. patty's day

Food Week Day 3!

BEHOLD THE BENTO BOX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So what the heck is a bento. I think this gives a great description about what is…via

'O-bento' is what the Japanese call a packed meal, usually lunch. Bento boxes
have internal dividers, and sometimes several stacked layers, so different kinds
of food sit in their own little compartments. (This is nice if, like me, you
don't necessarily like to mix flavors!) The whole thing is usually wrapped
together with chopsticks in a cloth or special bag, and the goal is to make the
whole package as attractive as possible - from considering the color
combinations of the food and presenting and garnishing it as neatly and artfully
as you can, to co-coordinating the box, chopsticks and wrapper, and any other
items like paper napkins, knife and fork or spoon, drink flask or thermos.

Sugarbunnies
Originally uploaded by My Bento Lunch

Up above view a super creative bento!

Now way back in the day at CMS (Cloquet Middle School) I ate lunch with a variety of people, however 2 of my loyal readers to this blog ate from a bento everyday for lunch. Now Sam, I must admit your lunches were perfection. You had a plastic container that held your sandwich and carrots neatly. Your sandwich was always cut in half and you always had baby carrots and a cupcake cut in half and flipped over to protect it’s frosting. (I am not sure if Randi had the same thing) Seriously, I loved your lunch for the pure aesthetic of it. Did your Dad pack them?

If I am not mistaken they looked alot like this:

See how cool that is! (I had great lunches packed by my mom and she always wrote really nice notes on napkins!) But my sandwich could have been less smashed...

So I think as a mom who will one day send her son of to school (Did I mention they have all day Kindergarten in the cities :)) I think this might be a valuable way to send lunch with Matias and I think everyone should have an up side down cupcake…

Pen Qwest

If there is a pen in reach, I will find it and get it. Not matter if my head get stuck and my Dad has to resucue me. I will get it because I love pens.-Matias " Si Puedo!!!

Food Week! Day 2

Today is a dish that will blow your mind. AND it’s vegan! Yum. It is what is on the menu tonight in the Vega household!

Cavatappi with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Cannellini Beans

Sounds strange right? Well I found the recipe via Amateur Gourmet, where this guy Adam writes lots of fun things about food, usually makes me really hungry in the process as well. I have read his blog for about 2 months and he has mentioned this recipe about 4 times. So according to him I had to try it.

Warning side story: We have digital channels now and daily we watch public television CREATE channel, which usually has cooking shows, gardening, home improvement, and crafting. My favorite show for it pure kitch value is Lydia’s Italy…(Lydia Ok look at her hair I mean come on!) But she is seriously like the Italian grandmother I never had…but really she make delightful Italian food and drinks LOTS of wine. This recipe is originally from her and it is so good! The other day she made some sauce thing with chicken parts and I was sooooo hungry. I told Luis she is the only person that has ever made me hungry for chicken organs…END Side Story

Ingredients:
Cavatappi Pasta (Which West Saint Paul never has so I use any pasta I have.)
Olive Oil
4 cloves of garlic sliced
Red pepper flakes
1 Jar Sun Dried Tomato sliced into strips (I used regular tomato once and it tasted different but still good!)
Pasta water
1 lb of Cannellini beans
Salt
Parsley
Parmesan Cheese

Boil Pasta 1 min less than the box suggests. In a LARGE skillet over medium add olive oil and oil from sun dried tomatoes. Add the garlic and cook for a few min and add red pepper flakes to your taste (We added extra to accommodate Luis’s need for spice) After every things is jiving (about a min or so) Put in your cut up tomatoes. Heat though and add about a cup of pasta water. Reduce in half and add beans with some salt and pasta water to almost cover the beans. Bring to a boil and allow to simmer for about 4 min. (Basically reduce it some more) Add your pasta and cook though (about a minute) Take you skillet off the heat and add parmesan (I used a vegan version of parmesan) and parsley.

I served this dish with a fresh salad and gelato for dessert. Although the flavor is not as strong with regular tomatoes it is a nice poor man version to the dish. Luis likes it and I do too. Matias seriously LOVES it. It nice to have a baby with refined tastes. Yesterday he ate Salmon people!!!

Food Week! Day 1

I have been cooking up a storm at our house when I have time. Although if my dad is reading this he will laugh because last week we did not eat one meal at home in the night (I either skipped dinner or was out). But I realize if I have the time to do it right cooking is something I enjoy. I hope my mom sees that!!!

But for the most part I have been focusing on making wholesome meals. (Mostly vegan or vegetarian) I have pictures saved up and have enough material for a WHOLE WEEK of posting! WOW! For today I will start with what I made for Saturday lunch.

Saturday lunch is my favorite meal of the week. It is one of 5 times during the week that we can eat as a family. But it is only 1 of 2 times that I have time to make something special and can clean up all the dishes.

So I must confess something with out going on....I love Rachel Ray. I love how she cooks and her weird sense of humor EVOO anybody?. Just to defend my self I have like her sense JR of college so it is not a new obsession. The way she cooks makes sense to me. I can remember her recipes with out having to look them up. Most importantly she never really measures so when you recreate the recipes you feel like you did it yourself with her ideas!

I usually do not get to watch daytime TV anymore, due to the fact the TV is invisible when Matias is awake. This past Friday, Matias took a weird nap so I had an afternoon to myself and watched the Rachel Ray show. By the end of it I was so hungry for the Tilapia "Sammies" she put together I went out, bought the ingredients and made them up for lunch on Sat. Luis was seriously impressed!
With out further ado if you like HUGE sandwiches with lots of ingredients and a yummy crust with a little spice try these (Luis loved the sour cream with Chipotle peppers, plus I added some extra peppers to his portion. *Warning they are super hot for him. So use with caution)

Here is the recipie and what I did is in bold, cooking for 2 1/2 makes a difference!
via rachelray.com
4 tilapia filets (about 6- to 8-ounces each) I bought a packet that comes with 2 4oz filets
4 limes, 1 zested and cut into wedges plus 3 left whole, divided used the lime juice in the plastic container
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Flour, for dredging
2 eggs, lightly beaten I just used one
1/2 sleeve saltine crackers, ground up in the food processor (about 2 cups of crumbs)
2 teaspoons (about a small palmful) smoked paprika
Added chili powder
1 tablespoon (about a palmful) seafood seasoning, such as Old Bay did not use.
3 to 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO), plus additional as needed, divided
4 whole wheat hoagie rolls, split in half lengthwise I used bread we had
1 cup sour cream I used only about 1/4 cup
1 chipotle in adobo, finely chopped plus a teaspoon or so of the adobo sauce
A few dashes hot sauce Did not use
3 tablespoons honey Did not use
1 head Bibb or Romaine lettuce, core removed, cleaned and leaves separated
1 large beefsteak tomato, thinly sliced I use a roma
1 ripe avocado, sliced
1 small red onion, sliced
1 half-sour deli pickle, thinly sliced lengthwise no pickle


Preheat oven to 400ºF or a broiler to high.

Season the filets with lime zest, salt and freshly ground black pepper. Set up three dishes on the counter: One with the flour, one with the eggs and the third with the ground saltines, smoked paprika and seafood seasoning. Bread the seasoned fish filets by first coating them in the flour, then in the egg, and finally in the seasoned cracker crumbs (give each filet a little press once it's been through all three dishes to make sure everything sticks well).

Once all of the filets have been breaded, place a large skillet over medium-high heat with 2 turns of the pan of EVOO, about 2 tablespoons. Once the oil is hot (test it by sprinkling a small amount of flour into the pan – it should fry up a little rather than just sit on the surface), place the breaded filets in and cook until golden brown on each side and cooked through, 3-4 minutes per side (depending on the size of your pan, you may need to cook the fish in batches – if so, add more oil to the pan as needed). Remove the cooked filets to a paper towel-lined plate and squeeze the wedges of lime over them so they soak up the lime juice while they're still hot.
While the fish filets are cooking, place the split rolls onto a baking sheet and toast them in the hot oven until golden brown (don’t forget about them or they'll burn!).
Combine the sour cream, chipotle and dash of adobo sauce in a small bowl and reserve.
Once the fish is cooked, assemble the sammies by spreading some of the chipotle sour cream onto each roll. Place a few leaves of lettuce, a few slices of tomato, avocado, onion and pickle on each roll. Top the veggies with a fish filet and serve with a scoop of slaw alongside or over the top.

So good!!!!!!!!!!! Enjoy or come over and I will make these bad boys.

On my desk

When I am at work and I look up to think. I see this and it melts my heart...miss you little buddy. How can you not love your child when they wake up at 6am smile on their face dancing to the music on the alarm clock.

It's the little things

I was so cool on Saturday I decided to stay in instead of whooping it up at O'GARA's...(is O'Gara's cool?)

Ok anyways I was watching snl and the funniest thing happened....it was funny. So I was trying to explain to Luis "the mirror" digital short. I did it no justice because Luis just kinda looked and me. He then exclaimed " I'm sleepy, I'm going to bed." But today via the Blogulator, I was reminded why a. the Internet is cool and b. why the writers were smart for striking. because they post the show on the Internet....say it slow for effect. Without further ado for LuLu. (Putting up with crappy TV is worth it for this)
"The mirror"

My face is hot

My face is soooo hot right now. Seriously I am burning up. But my hands are super cold and I have a blanket on my lap because I am cold!!!

Menopause?