Why I Marched in 2017 and will continue to do so...

Please read this excellent article that captures how I feel... especially in response to those who don't seem to "get it"... regardless of their gender. It begins: 

"Say thank you. Say thank you to the women who gave you a voice. Say thank you to the women who were arrested and imprisoned and beaten and gassed for you to have a voice. Say thank you to the women who refused to back down, to the women who fought tirelessly to give you a voice. Say thank you to the women who put their lives on hold, who –lucky for you — did not have “better things to do” than to march and protest and rally for your voice. So you don’t feel like a “second class citizen.” So you get to feel “equal.”"


--"You are Not Equal. I'm Sorry." by Dina Leygerman

Oh yeah. And a little bit of it is about this dumbass.

Knitting for a Cause -- Women's March 2018

In January, I finally picked up my knitting needles for the first time in a year. I decided to try my hand at knitting a "pussy hat" or as little V calls it, a "kitty hat." I managed to make one kid sized and one mama sized one just in time for the Women's March. I was pretty pleased with the result.

These knit up quickly and I just used the pattern from the PussyHat Project.

I knit mine with pink cotton/elastic yarn I happened to have on hand. Yay.

What's Cooking? A (Pinterest) Recipe Roundup for this Week

I struggle to remember what I used to cook before Pinterest. A lot of homemade macaroni and cheese, perhaps.

Tonight's meal featured a "Tested and Approved" meal option: Stromboli.  I love this one for the ease and deliciousness. It's got a few steps but still pretty easy.

Sunday felt like a day that needed a sort of Super Bowl type food so I opted for my very favorite sliders.  Oh man. Little delicious burgers from heaven. Yum. If you search for Sliders Four Ways on YouTube you can also see a print version of each of the recipes in the description.

Saturday, we ate Swedish Meatballs and mashed potatoes (very rich and creamy... my secret lots of cream, butter, sour cream and some tabasco... all whipped in my KitchenAid Mixer). My mom pointed out that this recipe was nothing like the one she uses, so here's the link. We like this version. Super tasty.

Friday, we had Spicy Sausage Rigatoni with Tomato Cream Sauce. I really like this one, but it is pretty spicy for those who don't like that sort of thing.

Earlier in the week I made Chicken Lazone and served it over angel hair pasta. This one is also a little spicy since I tend to cut up my chicken into bite size pieces and dip in spices before cooking rather than coating a full breast or tender.

Not sure if you've noticed but all our meals seem to have one common ingredient--cream. The only one that didn't was the stromboli from tonight. Sheesh.

In addition to this week's main course menu I tried a new recipe: Scottish Shortbread and am happy to report it was a success.

I also made homemade granola bars today but the jury is still out on those. They don't seem to be holding together very well. I skipped the brown sugar in this recipe and just used butter, honey, and peanut butter for the liquid bits. Didn't add any vanilla. I mixed in oats, peanuts, sunflower seeds, craisins, and sliced almonds. I've really liked crushed pretzels in this recipe but I didn't have any. I also decided to skip the chocolate for this batch so it hardly seems like I even followed the recipe, but I think the idea is that can be altered.  I wonder if I added a bit of Karo Syrup if it would stick together better.

Almost every week we make Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins for the little monster who can't imagine a breakfast without one. This week was no different.

And lastly, I made one more batch of our favorite ranch dressing. This one is a Whole 30 recipe that uses coconut milk and is fabulous. So quick and easy to make if you have the ingredients on hand. And tastes good enough to drink! I typically don't bother adding cilantro or any other spice since the first time I made it without and it tasted so good, I've never tried it another way.