Sighs

One thing I am not good at is commitment. Oh, I'm good at the big stuff: I married my wonderful husband for life and nothing will ever change that. I have my boys and I tell them everyday that there's nothing they could ever ever do to make me stop loving them. I'm a CASA and that is at least a two year commitment that I am heartily looking forward to. It's the little things, like, "I'll call you back as soon as I know." or "I'm gonna shine my sink everyday cause FLYLady tells me to." or "I'm gonna make a new recipe EVERY day in April!" These things that sound easy always trip me up.

A few months ago, I would have spiraled into a moody funk that would have lasted for days at the merest hiccup in my plan. I have spent a few too many years setting my bar way too high and then beating myself up for missing the unattainable but lofty mark. I realized that my Dad, (the all powerful, all loving One) doesn't give a hoot for my lofty aspirations. I mean He does, don't get me wrong, but I have a Dad who just wants to be with me and He just loves me. A beautifully organized and well executed meal plan can't make Him love me any more than a messy house and 10 undone (or pre-done as I like to refer to them) loads of laundry could make Him love me less. So I'm not stressing about it.

We've been having new food. Even when I don't tell you about it, we do. Most of the time. So, Monday, we had Joshua and Karen over for dinner with their girls. On a side note, I'd like to think I would know what to do with a girl if I had one, but my interactions with them lead me to believe that that might not be the case.

We had Gnocchi with Sausage and Swiss Chard.

It was a hit. It was a little too spicy for the Tinys and Josh (my husband, not my pastor). I think that gnocchi (what's the plural of that? do you add an 's'? whuteve) are/is a little boring, kinda slimy and not that fun to put in my mouth. It's an opinion, don't hate. But it really was pretty good, it's mostly just a texture thing for me. For dessert, Karen and I made these little kiwi-lime tartlets...Yowza! I could eat those every day and they were SO easy! If you want the recipe, ask Nakita...

Here's those:

AND THEN! A winner! It makes me happy to call it noodles with peas and cheese, cause that rolls off the tongue, doesn't it? But the real name was Ricotta Pasta with Peas and Grape Tomatoes.
Again, it was Rachael Ray. I would say it was very close to 30 min. It was so easy, and good for summer because it was served kind of cool. That was mostly my fault because I was making these:

Garlic Parmesan Crostini! Dude! It's FRIED toast with cheese on it!

I'm not even kidding.

Oooooh! Heaven is a place on earth! It's wherever these little butter drenched babies are!

Don't get me wrong I really like the pasta! Like I said, it's good for spring or summer cause it's cool without being cold, and it was really fresh tasting and light. I almost would think of adding a little mint into it too, cause I'm crazy like that, but the fresh basil was SO nice! It's totally a keeper. Back to the bread. YUMM! YUMM! YUMM.

Yesterday we kind of had pecan crusted chicken tenders with a nice salad with tangy maple barbecue dressing. I shall elaborate. For whatever reason, I was again procrastinating on making dinner. Josh was going to be late home from work and, oddly enough, that always causes me to stall dinner. SO I pull out my chicken and start it to thawing, then I remember why I haven't made this recipe before. NO FOOD PROCESSOR! Duh Carlie! Get it together! Cripes! well what did I do? You ask. I hand chopped a cup of pecans into a fine chop. It took for-freaking-ever. Then I had to bread and fry them... Fine whatever... I made the dressing, which was good, and when I went to get the lettuce, I found that it had been pushed to the back of the fridge. It froze and and my salad loving hopes were shattered like the ice clinging to the soon to be wilty romaine leaves. Well, it was about then that I decided that I wanted to go to Josh's practice, I called up Amy and told her I'd feed her if she came over. She did. It's cause she's cool like that. I promise not to take advantage of her now that she lives so close. Maybe.

Anyway, Josh came screaming through the kitchen looking for food, and left a trail of week old macaroni salad behind him. I ate one piece of the chicken, and then asked Amy to cook the rest and feed the boys so I could go. She did. It's cause she's cool like that. Anyway, they were sufficient. I didn't get pics, because I was in such a hurry and also they weren't too pretty.

Tonight was supposed to be sweet pea soup... But as evidence testifying to the first few paragraphs, it didn't happen. Instead, we ran to, I hate to say it, McDonald's. It's true. Please don't hate me. We were in a hurry. Jackson and I had a great date and Josh and Noah and manly time at home.

It's been a good week.