What a Day!

Oh my. Some days just don't go well, do they? I'm definitely paying for something -- probably my new awareness of our collection of glasses and shoes as I mentioned yesterday.

Toddler is insisting on springing from bed as soon as Daddy's shower starts, which is about an hour before he used to when in the crib. Ah, I miss the crib. I don't miss the idea that Toddler could do plies on the top rail and was in great danger of flipping himself out, but I do miss that extra hour of peace and quiet!

I don't know what it is, but I was ready to call it quits before 10 AM today. I had to play a game of "Find the Funk" this morning. I'll give you a hint -- I started with Toddler's diaper and was shocked, yes shocked, to find it empty. It took me awhile to figure out where (still not sure "who"). That is way more cleaning than I want to have to do early in the morning. (But then again, who wants to do cleaning any time of the day?) If you were inclined to read this sort of thing in detail, there was a lot of funny there, but I will spare you.

Let's just end this part of the tale with our heroine saying, "Take that, Entropy! Not only did I clean up the mess, I vacuumed four rooms and hand wiped the kitchen floor!" Too bad I can't really feel that kind of triumph. It is all an act, believe me.

Moving on. I planned to make beef and broccoli for dinner, from a recipe a friend posted on Facebook. I mean, I have beef, and if there is one thing we never lack for in this house, it is broccoli . What could go wrong?

First Lesson for the day: Never, ever, ever start a recipe without checking ALL your ingredients first.

Second Lesson for the day: Too many deviations from a recipe and you have a brand new dish. It may not be a good one, either.

So I start making the recipe. I thaw the beef and cut it up and begin to make the sauce. Then I reach the first hiccup. Woops. I'm out of soy sauce. You would think I would remember this because it happened last week and I had to cut open a whole lot of the little packets from the Chinese food place and pour them one at a time into a measuring cup. Quickly I check -- yep, there is a small handful of packets left. We can squeeze by one more time, and what else does anyone do with all of those soy sauce packets anyway? Then, on a whim, I decide to substitute half of the beef broth with onion soup. Why? Because I had a half a can of onion soup in the fridge waiting for a recipe. I figured it couldn't hurt, right? Just make the sauce taste a little stronger ... right? Then I went to get the broccoli out of the freezer. It was supposed to be fresh, but I always have frozen on hand.

To my dismay, there was 1/3 of a bag and no more. I was deceived by all the bags of frozen green beans. NOT ENOUGH BROCCOLI! IN MY HOUSE, NO LESS! Broccoli is the only green vegetable I willingly eat. All others are consumed under protest for the good of my family. OK, I've gone this far in deviating the recipe and avoiding taking Toddler to the grocery store. What can I do about this? I see a bag of mixed vegetables. Let's give it a try!

So, instead of Chinese Beef and Broccoli, I have No-Particular-Origin Beef and Mixed Vegetables (with some Broccoli) flavored with Onion Soup. I can't say it was bad, but it wasn't what I had in mind. Darling Husband suggested we use seasoning salt to improve it. Heck, why not? That way it doesn't resemble Chinese Beef and Broccoli in the slightest. Now we just need to name it.