I'm Not Burning My Bra; That Sh!t's Expensive!

  I know some of you were probably a bit  heartbroken when I didn't post a new blog last night ;-P, so I'll try to heal the hurt by doing one this morning.  Yesterday we spent the majority of the day at home, playing games and doing crafts.  I've discovered a new hobby: making bows.  If you've noticed in the pictures, Monkey has a signature hair-do that she's almost unrecognizable without.  I love her little pig-tails, and I love putting bows in them on special occasions, but have you seen the price of bows?  They range anywhere from $5-$15 dollars depending on their size.  So, when I find a certain ribbon on sale for $1.00, I figure it's worth a try.  Who knows?  I may even become good enough to sale my over-priced bows to unsuspecting Mommys.  So here are a few of my first attempts:

  While we're on the subject of crafts, today is Thursday, which would mean a new letter, but we haven't gone to story time yet.  So instead, let's review a few of our pretty projects from the past week.  I've already mentioned the puzzle piece picture frame, and the pretty "Picasso" picture.  We also made this:

a piggy purse made out of pink and white felt paper, googly eyes, and hot glue.  Then, we made this:

a pony made out of colored card stock, clothespins, googly eyes, yarn, and hot glue.   We also played a fun game where Monkey ran around the house looking for anything pink (because pink begins with "p"). It was really fun.  Now I've got to brainstorm a few things for "Q".  Let me know if you have any suggestions.

   So on to why I abandoned my usual posting last night.  A few weeks ago, I ordered a dresser from Walmart.com, and I thought that I'd be frugal and choose the "site-to-store" option since that's free.  I received an email telling me that it was ready for pickup on Monday, so being the procrastinator that I am, yesterday I headed out to get it.  Please keep in mind that I drive a Crown Victoria, which has a huge amount of trunk space, and I thought that if it didn't fit there, then we'd lay it across the floorboards in the back seat, under Monkey's feet.  That's always worked before.  Evidently, I didn't really pay attention to the size of the thing.  It was so big, two guys had to get it out to my car, and then bless their hearts, they tried their hardest to do what I asked and put it in the back seat.  It took them about thirty minutes to maneuver this 175 lb box into the back, only to find that the door wouldn't close.  By this point, we're all sweating (did I mention we were under a heat advisory yesterday?), and the guys are just being as sweet at they can be.  Finally one of us (I really don't remember who) suggested we move the car seat to the front seat, and voila!  The box fit!  With many thanks  on my end, and a few warnings not to try to carry it up my stairs on their end, the guys went on their way, and I headed home.  Monkey enjoyed sitting up front with me for the short ride home, and I left the box until the sun went down so that it wouldn't be too hot outside to fool with it.

   We headed inside to soak up some much-needed air, and to get dinner started.  I had plans for a friend to come eat with us, but then we started hearing horrible thunder, so loud and so close that it knocked a few pictures off of my wall.  Next, I just happened to look out the window to see the main road in our neighborhood filling up with water.  Evidently a pipe busted, and the water was coming up through the drains.  It wasn't long before I noticed they had turned off the water to our neighborhood in order to fix it.  I cancelled my dinner plans, and went to work attempting to cook up something for Monkey and myself without water, and this is what I made.

  This is Pretzel Chicken with Mustard-Cheddar Sauce, and I got the recipe from Taste and Tell Blog.  (I told y'all I liked her.)  Anyway, this chicken was good, but to be honest, it's not amazing.  I think it's a good, quick weeknight meal.  Here's the recipe:

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
about 6 ounces of salted pretzels
salt and pepper
2 eggs
vegetable oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon flour
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon spicy mustard
2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
fresh flat-leaf parsley, for garnish

Completely butterfly each of the chicken breasts, making a total of 4 thin chicken breasts. One by one, put the chicken breast in between 2 pieces of plastic wrap and flatten slightly with a mallet.

Put the pretzels in a food processor and process until you have fine crumbs. Put the crumbs in a shallow dish and season with salt and pepper. In another shallow dish, beat the eggs.

In a large saute pan over medium heat, heat up the oil, about 1/8″ deep.

Dip each chicken piece into the pretzels, then into the eggs, then back into the pretzels. Add to the hot oil in the pan. Put the chicken into the hot oil and cook until the pretzels are browned and the chicken is cooked through. This only takes about 3 or 4 minutes on each side.

Meanwhile, make the sauce. In a saucepan, melt the butter. Whisk in the flour and cook for 1 minute. Whisk in the milk and the mustard, and cook until slightly thickened. Stir in the cheese. Season with salt and pepper, if needed.

Serve the chicken with the Mustard-Cheddar Sauce, and sprinkle a generous amount of parsley on top.

    So after a waterless cooking experience, where I realized just how many times I run to the sink for a quick hand-scrubbing, it was bath time for Monkey.  She loves her bath time, and last night, she was not happy when she got into the tub, turned on the tap, and nothing happened.  She started crying, saying she wanted to swim "in my tub".  I tried to explain that it was broken and that we were going to have to wipe down tonight, but she was not buying it.  "Fix it mama; fix it, please."  :-(  Then I had to look into those pleading little eyes and admit the one thing mommys don't want to admit.  "I can't fix everything baby."  Disappointed, she soon fell asleep, and that's when the fun began.

   I went downstairs, into the garage and began hacking away at the giant box that was taking over my back seat.  I managed to get all 175 lbs of that dresser up my stairs, a few pieces at a time ;-)  (Brains over brawn baby; who needs a man?)  That gave me a total sense of empowerment.  I completely understand the feelings that led to women burning their bras in the 60s and 70s.  Although, Victoria Secret is a bit too expensive for me to want to whip out my lighter, but you get the sense of elation I was feeling.  

  After getting the whole thing upstairs, I set to work putting it together.  It took me until 12:30 am, but I finished that beast with a feeling of pride.  The feeling evaporated when my daughter woke me up at 5:00 am, but hey, I have a dresser now!

Please note, that although I've reread this three times by now, I just can't make it any funnier, but lay off me.  I'm running on four hours of sleep here.