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This week we held “Saturday Splurge: Hors D’oeuvres Edition” and were joined by Gillian and Deborah.

Anyone who knows me knows that an hors d’oeuvres dinner is kind of a dream situation for me.  Dips, there were so many dips…Also, anyone who knows me knows that I’ve inherited my mother’s ability to worry endlessly about whether there will be enough food, the right mix of food, and an appropriate number of options which translates into an inabilty to make a normal amount of food for any gathering.  Tonight was no exception.  Behold, the mostly mayonnaise-based (and yes, it was a Saturday splurge, so only real mayonnaise would do) feast:

Granny’s sausage balls (Sausage, cheese, and Bisquick–how could this be anything less than fantastic?  Plus, it always reminds me of my Granny, which makes it that much better!):

Jalapeno Popper Spread (Discovered this on Allrecipes.com–super simple and only cooks for 3 minutes in the microwave, lots of mayonnaise is involved.):

Herbed Cheese Puffs (Also from Allrecipes.com: biscuit pieces topped with a mixture of (you guessed it) mayonnaise, parmesan and romano cheeses, oregano, basil, chopped green onions, and garlic salt–AWESOME!):

Hot Artichoke and Spinach Dip (Another hit from Allrecipes.com — I believe the site calls it : Hot Artichoke and Spinach Dip II, but I felt that the II would be confusing because we didn’t have a I.  Mayonnaise was a star player in this scene as well.):

Bacon-Wrapped Scallops (Okay, so I sort of cheated on this one and bought them already prepared, but I have good reasons.  #1–Matt has talked forever about wanting to learn to make these and how he could eat nothing but bacon-wrapped scallops, and then he usually morphs into a soliloquy about how everything would be better wrapped in bacon (not that I disagree, mind you) and then…well…I lose my train of thought — kinda like I just did just then.  #2–We needed another protein-based hors d’oeuvre to round things out.  #3 (and this one is kind of key)–They were BOGO at Publix this week.  Don’t judge–they were delicious.

A good time was had by all (or, at least, Matt and I had a good time — I really shouldn’t assume that Deborah and Gillian had a good time — but I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch).

One additional bit of advice (and this is very important):  All of these dishes are excellent but I do not, I repeat, I DO NOT recommend eating them all at once.  There is such a thing as too much of a good thing (who knew?).  The upside is that I’m now craving unadorned vegetables…

Several weeks ago I was on my way home from the grocery store and I noticed something very familiar:

The puzzle here is that it was in a very unfamiliar place (at least unfamiliar to that particular cone, since the City of Decatur is about 10 miles from where I spotted it).  I have developed several theories.

1) Centex Homes is lousy with thieves who are apparently too lazy to steal from someplace far enough away that people don’t know that it doesn’t belong here (or — and this may just be too obvious — too lazy to at least steal cones without another city’s logo on them).

2) Centex Homes has spent all their money for new signage to display the continually reduced prices on their homes and had to go after-market on their cones (economy, bladdey, bladdey, recession, blah, blah, blah).

3) Someone out there knew that I have been longing for Decatur and was trying to send me a cosmic message about finding “my Decatur” out here.  Something, something, metaphor about home, yadda, yadda, yadda.

4) Centex Homes decided that by placing a cone with the City of Decatur logo on it over the hole in the sidewalk that’s been there for a ridiculous period of time they could eventually sway public opinion enough that people would realize that the don’t want to live in Decatur (Decatur=holes in the sidewalk) and would find a suitable alternative in the neighborhood that’s just beyond the cone.

5) It’s just a cone and I’m putting way too much thought into it.

6) It’s a conspiracy that they‘ve concocted in an attempt to make it look like I’m losing my mind.

7) I’m actually losing my mind.

One morning this week Liam woke up with bigger feet than he had the previous day.  I’m not sure exactly which morning, but sometime between Monday and today the only shoes that he can comfortably wear are his Crocs and he takes those off everywhere we go (not exactly ideal for the playground).   The kid needs a pair of tennis shoes.

Enter Zappos.  I love them.  They have a ton of selection and great service.  The latest example of this is that I ordered new shoes for Liam yesterday evening at 7:30 and they were on our doorstep at 3:30 this afternoon.  The free shipping and returns don’t hurt either, since internet shopping for shoes (especially for a toddler) can be dicey.  However, nothing is more dicey than trying to take Liam shopping somewhere and A) find shoes that I like B) find shoes that Matt likes C) find shoes that don’t make Liam trip all over himself & D) don’t put us directly in the poorhouse.  I got the first two pairs of the shoes we decided on (I ordered the size I thought he’d need and the next half size up) this afternoon.  The larger size fits him (and passed the running test–no tripping and he threw a fit when I tried to take them off) but if I can get away with even larger ones without him eating pavement then I’d prefer to get as much life out of these as I can, so I ordered another half size up this evening.  It’s all worth it, though–could these be any cuter?

Fantastic price and just like Dad’s, how could we resist?

Action shots to come.

We had another splurge meal tonight.  And by splurge I mean a meal that was on the list for a regular-weeknight meal until I was sick for a week from caffeine withdrawal and other ailments and fell behind on our scheduled meals.  So technically it was a Cooking Light recipe (which doesn’t really follow splurge guidelines) but instead of the fat free evaporated milk it called for I used lowfat, so that’s kind of a splurge, don’t you think?  It’s called Cajun Chicken Pasta and technical splurge or not, it was fantastic (and ready at 8pm when Liam went down instead of 10:15pm like last week).

In process:

Finished product:

Mmmm!!!

1:  I think Liam reads the blog.  He just started eating the crusty, fried cheese off his sandwiches yesterday but today he moved on to not only eating the fried cheese off the edges but refusing to eat anything not attached to the fried cheese on the outside.  He spent a good twenty minutes pulling cheese from between the pieces of bread (until it no longer pulled out into cool cheese strings and began to just break off).

2:  Matt read somewhere recently that Liam is supposed to be able to drink from a regular cup at this point.  This idea was terrifying to me (I immediately pictured my entire house doused with milk from floor to ceiling) but I knew it had to happen sometime so I gave him a plastic cup filled with yogurt smoothie at lunch today.  He immediately put his hands on either side of the cup, picked it up, and drank it like he’d been doing it his whole life (as is usually the case with developmental activities that he hasn’t mastered because his parents were too stupid (or scared of potential repercussions) to allow him to try).  I said “Liam, I’m very impressed!”  He has been walking around saying “Mama ‘pressed” for the past half an hour.  Of course I had the camera handy for the momentous occasion:

Look Ma, no lid!

One:

Two:

Three:

Mmmmm, Smoothie!

Maybe she’ll put down that camera if I can hide from her…

If I just concentrate hard enough, I’m sure I can will this smoothie into my mouth:

The power of positive thinking:

Monkey love:

Monkey hug:

Monkey kiss: