The Burp Rag Chronicles

A New Best Friend!

A Venti Vanilla Rooibos Tazo Tea Latte has got to be one of the best things in the world right now.

When we moved away from Los Angeles, I dearly missed The Coffee Bea & Tea Leaf (CBTL for future reference). Every winter they came out with this Winterdream Tea out of which they'd make a latte that was just heavenly! They also have beautiful Ice Blended drinks (I preferred them to Starbuck's Frappucino's, honestly... more chocolately... though probably also more calories and fat and other goodness like that) but after surgery I stopped drinking the latter.

So moving away took me away from the Winterdream Tea Latte. Pout! Until this afternoon, I was feeling adventurous... not my normal self, I guess.

"Would you like to try our Vanilla Rooibos Tea Latte today?"

"Hmm, what all is in it?" I ask this because of the sugar they often sneak in there which will tear me a new gut.

"Tea, milk, a bit of vanilla syrup, we can make it sweetened or unsweetened if you like."

"Hit me up with that."

Best words I spoke today. It's nearly identical to the Winterdream tea - which makes me think that all it is is Rooibos tea with some added cinnamon. That is one thing the Bucks version lacks... a little bit extra cinnamon. But you can add that at the milk bar. ;-) And the best part? Naturally decaf because it's an herbal tea! Mmmmmmmm.

Ahh, my new best friend. Move over latte, we got a new permanent passenger in the car.

We visited Toys R Us this afternoon to see if there was anything Sydney could use her Christmas gift card from Aunt Karen on. We gravitate toward the games, but they don't have many on the shelves, I guess from the Christmas Raid. So we find some replacement Play Doh and... Moon Sand.

I'd heard horrid, HORRID tales of Moon Sand from other moms, but... I'm willing to give it a shot. Play Doh isn't as bad as my mind had made it to be, so what the heck, right?

No, it's every bit as evil as the name implies. It's not for 3-year-olds as the age thing on the front implies. It's kind of this damp sand that makes bricks and forms really nicely, but I can see a 3-year-old making a GIGANTIC mess of it. Maybe it'll be an outside toy or something. Someone without children or access to them clearly made this stuff.

BEWARE the Moon Sand.

10 Year Anniversary

Jarrod and I celebrated our ten year anniversary today. Not wedding anniversary, but ten years that we've known each other. :-)

I can remember that day (evening?) pretty clearly, though pregnancy brain is muddling things a tad. I'll be more clear next year, I promise.

We met up at EZ's Brick Oven and Grill because it seemed like a good/safe place to meet this guy I met online. Ironically, I was in a relationship with a complete ass hat at the time so maybe this was my way of getting out. Saving myself from myself, really.

Anyway, we met, exchanged pleasantries, and we went inside where we proceeded to order hamburgers. His was plain with only mustard, and mine was with everything BUT mustard. "Oooh boy, this is off to a great start." The reason I met up with this guy was because we had so much in common - we drove practically the same car, we were both computer nerds, we chatted on ICQ forever and a day. The moment I saw the weird burger ordering... it felt too good to be true. ;-)

But, we went on. The cashier took his money (He paid. Good boy!) and he proceeded to drop the change. I snickered to myself, how cute. We took a seat, small talked about who knows what (I bet he can tell you, he remembers that kind of thing!) and our orders came up.

His was drowned in mustard and mine had mustard on it. I don't HATE mustard, but I have to be in the mood for it. Anyway, it was a pretty uneventful first date after that. We ate, chatted, etc. and walked out to our cars after that. Where we opted to go see a movie - Pleasantville. Was a pretty safe bet for a First Date movie, so I was in. We watched, enjoyed, went our seperate ways after that.

Overall, a good evening. I'm pretty bad with details anymore, but really, it's pretty obvious what happened from then on out. I moved in with him, we moved to California, got married, bought a condo, had a kid, sold a condo, moved back to Texas, started having another kid. More to this story come February. ;-)

So this afternoon we opted to revisit that same EZ's we met at. A few things have changed, but we talked about how much we've grown as people, the things we remember since then, incidents at that restaurant after we met, etc. It's been a long road, but I'd do it again any ol' day of the week. Or... decade of the millenia, as it were.

So this evening he surprised me with an Edible Arrangement. I've really, really wanted one of these for a loooong time now. Seriously, what an awesome idea! I adore fruit, and our cats just tend to eat the flowers if you go that route so why bother? And this way it's a family treat, too. Oh, it was just what I wanted. I didn't really expect anything, so it really WAS a surprise.

And what a yummy surprise! The grapes were kind of a visual let-down (not as dark purple as they were in pictures I'd seen) but they TASTED great! And the strawberries and pineapple... oh! Chocolate dipped strawberries, but not all of them which was nice. I like naked fruit, too! ;-)

And generally I am not too big on surprises. I hate them, loathe them, in fact. This was a very happy, dappy surprise though. :D

Dear God In Culinary Heaven

Tonight, I reheated the Teriyaki Pulled Pork from last night.  I made some Idahoan instant mashed potatoes.  I nuked a little Nibblets corn for Sydney.  I fixed our plates and then spooned on some Horizon cottage cheese.

oh. My. GOD.  What a delicious meal!  At the height of their empire-destroying decadence, the Roman aristocracy never ate this well, I guarantee.

Afterward, I cut up a pineapple we picked up at H-E-B yesterday. 

I chose... wisely!  Oh, it's perfect.  Low acid, very sweet, I swear to you it almost tastes like a Pina Colada all by itself.  It's like EATING HAWAII or something.  O sweet nectar. O food of the Gods.  Zeus may have feasted on Ambrosia, but he never tasted anything like this. 

I gave Sydney a bite as I cut up the first quarter, and she kept coming back.  And back.  And back.  "Nuh one, daddy!  Nuh one!"  I think between the two of us, we probably downed a quarter of that thing before I put it up.

But I feel its call... I have the feeling more will be consumed very soon.  I could eat it 'till I'm sick, and that actually might happen.

Oh, but what a way to go!

Mexican Lasagna

Okay, so Mexican Lasagna I wasn't as good as anticipated. It was too salty, presumably from the sausage. Also, the flour tortillas gave it a strange texture.

So yesterday I got the makings for it again at the store, only I use half ground beef and half sausage. I also got a different brand of enchilada sauce as well as corn tortillas. MUCH better. It's kind of like a Spanish rice variation. After three hours of cooking, the tortillas go to much, really (which is okay by me!). I also got "Medium" sauce... I can never remember which is less hot, Mile or Medium... but it was spicy!! I loved it, and apparently so did Sydney. :)

We went swimming yesterday in the evening after J got home from work. The sun had started to go down and it was chilly!! Eeesh, it was something like 90 during the day but if you are wet and that sun goes down, it gets cold. But Syd had a fun time, she looks so cute in her "surfer girl" swimsuit. I opted for a t-shirt style top on her swimsuit since J and I burn SO easily, I don't want her to get burnt - even with sunscreen it still happens.

I digress - she swam with her arm floats, and did really well! She doesn't like to go under water though, I think she's just not used to holding her breath yet. She was kicking her legs and paddling her arms most of the time! I think by the end of the summer she will be really good at it! :)

We haven't been having great days at school - the past few days she has gotten into Time Out a few times for doing things she normally doesn't do... throwing toys, etc. Though she got her CHAIR taken away yesterday for using it to climb onto the table. Naughty naughty. :( Hopefully today will be better. :) When I went to pick her up yesterday they were outside playing in a water table, a sand table and a third table that they'd filled with rice. Very fun! In the sand they'd buried Milkbone dog biscuits to play with.

THAT is where she is getting all this talk about bones! I couldn't figure it out for the longest time.

So, another day, another dollar. I wish I had a full two days in a row off. Need to find a different schedule ASAP. Blech.

Chicken Flowers

J-rod Says:

Today we went to Palmdale to a mall because the ginormous truck accident on the 5 meant we weren't going anywhere south of the Santa Clarita valley.

Whilst there, we ate at their food court amongst many rude people and what appeared to be either a very young wedding party or an extremely elaborate Quincinera party getting their food at - you guessed it - McDonald's.  Sydney got a Happy Meal with Chicken McNuggets, which I fed to her while Mommy went to get food for Mommy and Daddy.  I broke open three of the nuggets to cool them down and while Mommy was away, my mind wandered.  One of the nugget-halves had a small hole inside pointed right at me.  So, weirdo that I am, I took one of the stiffer, pointed french fries and put it in the nugget.  It formed something that looked like a--

"Tree!" Sydney shouts from her seat in the stroller, reaching out for it.  I said, almost without thinking, "It's a chicken flower." 

"Fwower." she repeated.  "Chicka.  Fwower.  Pease! Pease!"  She took it from me and munched it down greedily.  And munched down 4 or 5 more of the half-chicken-nugget/french fry treats that her Mom and I made for her, including one that she licked several times like a popsicle before chomping.

As I've found before, with kids, it's not always the flavor so much as the presentation. 

I'd say Chicken Flowers will be a permanent addition to our menu.