Dinner is served

(And you'll see why in a minute)

Since Strip started school, and knowing Nugget and I will be back to school in a couple of weeks, I've been trying to embrace the crock pot. There are quite a few days where she'll get off the bus late, then we have something to do near dinner time, so we need to eat as soon as we walk in the door at night, or right before we go. Meaning, unless we eat hot dogs and anything else microwavable, I need to have dinner READY to go whenever.

First up was an italian chicken and tomatoes dish. Not bad, but kind of anti-climatic, too. Tuesday, I decided to try one of my favorite pork tenderloin recipes. I LOVE this one, but the recipe alludes to the pork cooking in 10ish minutes, which it never does, so I tried searing it, and cooking it in the crock pot with double the glaze for sauce. That way, we could have favorite pork, and the leftovers I could use on a spinach salad with the glaze as dressing. But, I think the pork cooked a little too long, and the glaze got a little juicy/runny. Again, not bad, but not as good as when I do it the real way.

Last night, to use up the last little bit of Bessie (we got a cow (for the freezer, not the yard), and are down to livers (ew), stew meat and a couple of steaks). I got Strip on the bus, Nugget settled in playing and assembled my meal. This is so easy! Just dump, stir, set and cover! After doing some laundry, I left to get a hair cut while Nugget played next door. As a thank you for keeping him, I treated everyone to Chick-fil-a, so went over to the neighbor's first. After lunch, Nugget and I headed home, and when I opened the garage, we were slapped in the face with the sent of stew.

When Strip got off the bus, we ran to the mall (Sephora birthday gift? It's a necessity! Plus some random things to tuck away for Christmas for the kiddos). We came home, showered, got in pjs and played Wii until Hubs got home. When he walked in the door, I walked over to the crock pot to serve up our delicious beef stew. It was then that I discover the amazing transformation that had taken place.

It looked like someone had filled the crock pot with dog food, then eaten carrots and vomited all over the dog food, replaced the lid and cooked it for 6 hours.

Aren't you glad I didn't include a picture?

I muttered to Hubs, "I'll preheat the oven, you go grab a pizza out of the freezer," but we served it and set the table. The kids take turns blessing dinner, and sometimes we end up with three prayers. Tonight, Strip offered to say a prayer from her heart. Her stand-by from-the-heart prayer is normally, "Dear God, thank you for this wonderful food. We hope we like it and we hope we enjoy it, Amen."

Last night, however, it really WAS from her heart. After looking at the plate, she folded her little hands, bowed her head and said,

"Dear God, PLEASE help up to like this food...." and I finished, "So there aren't any leftovers?"

Amen!