The W(h)ine Hour..

Every household has one…the whine hour. It’s those bewitching hours between approximately 5 and 8pm in the evening when the kids go crazy and moms across the world lose their minds completely. It doesn’t matter if you have babies, toddlers, kids, tweens, or teens; those hours of dinner/homework/bath time/ bedtime can just about do a momma in. What is a girl to do? It’s simple and brilliant actually, just slip in a little wine of your own! Now, I’m not suggesting anyone down a bottle of whiskey everyday between the hours of 5 and 8, in fact if you do that you will have a few whine hours of your own the next morning. Basically, a little wine during the whine hours will keep you out of the padded cell at the local cookoo house where people will walk by and peek in your little window and say things like “aww, poor mom has lost her marbles” and “hmmm, now that’s a crazy one right there, sits in there all day and hits herself over the head with a Barbie and a hotwheel”. Don’t smirk, it can happen.

So, enjoy the tales of my whine hour, and how I survive each and everyone of one of them with a sense of humor and a good bottle of wine! After all, the whine hour comes around every single day, a girl has to be prepared!

Cheers!

Thursday, February 2, 2012

The best and the not so good

Every week I make one trip to the grocery store.  These trips are well thought out, with a menu plan and a list.  If not, I leave the store with a cart full of oreo cookies and we eat out a lot. ;)  Each time I make this pilgrimage to the food market some sort of comment is made about my cart.  I'm not sure why my grocery habits are so entertaining to people, but apparently I should be charing admission to the show.  Thank you, thank you very much...I'll be here all week or next week. ;)  Here are a few of my favorites:

"Guess we won't be seeing you again til next month."  Yeah right...

"Did you know you just dropped a loaf of bread back there?"  Oops..sure didn't

"Ohhh, Lord child, what you be doin over there, feedin an army...um mm mmm ummm, Lord." Hear Minny from "The Help" in your head when reading that comment.  I think I found my new BFF. ;)

After being run over by his wife with her cart, "It's kind of like going to war isn't it?"  Umm, yeah and your wife is the enemy...sheesh.

"How many kids you got?"  Apparently too many.

"Oh my...you must have boys."  You think?

And the most recent (like 3 days ago) and my new personal favorite:  The little old man that stands by the carts at the grocery store and makes sure everyone gets a nice clean one going in says to me on the way out, "Excuse me ma'm....you're going to need to stop, we need to keep some food in the store for our other customers." HAHAHAHAHA!!!  We shared a good heehaww laugh over that and then I trudged out to my car with my overflowing cart full of groceries.  See you next week, Grandpa! ;)

On tonight's menu is THE best fish you have ever eaten...I mean like seriously good.  Restaurant good.  When I make this I feel like I should be on a cooking show or a famous chef or something.  In my mind, I am totally famous, fish recipe or not. ;)

Favorite Tilapia (that's what I call it, because that's what it is.)  I make this sans recipe...cuz that's how I roll. ;)  But here's the gist...
Spray the bottom of a baking dish of any kind with some sort of non-stick cooking spray.  Lay the tilapia in the dish and drizzle olive oil over it.  Sprinkle the fish with basil, parsley flakes and minced onion.  Slice a beef steak tomato in thick slices and lay one over each fish.  Drizzle balsamic vinegar over it.  Don't you just love the word drizzle in cooking?  Makes me laugh...isn't that a weather term? Then sprinkle (another weather term, this is gettting creepy) oregano and pepper over tomatoes.  Bake at 400 for 20 to 25 minutes.  I would err on the side of long on this because undercooked fish unless you are at a sushi restaurant is just gross.  This fish is seriously one of the best things I have ever made.  The flavors are fantastic together!  With this I put some crescent rolls (easy enough) and the not so good portion of the evening....balsamic honey glazed carrots.  You bake the carrots for about 20 minutes at 400 then mix together 2 tbls honey, 2 tbls olive oil and 2 tbls balsamic vinegar, drizzle ;) over the carrots and bake about 5 more minutes.

Review:
The fish is all gone and I made a LOT of it. Enough said.
The carrots are almost all still here. ;)  They were too crunchy and just not that great.  The hubby and I liked them ok, the brace faced teenager couldn't chew them well, and the younger two were grossed out by the "brown carrots".  Definitely not a hit, and steamed carrots are always well received here so I am certain it wasn't the carrots.  Oh well, of course the crescents were a hit so between those and the fish everyone is all fat and happy for the night. ;)

The best wine for a light white fish like tilapia is a nice pinot grigio.  I like the Barefoot pinot grigio, but I do not like being barefoot and pinoted; which is what could happen if you drink too much pinot grigio of any kind so let's be careful out there!

Happy Thursday!

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