There's A New Chef in Town

I struggle with thinking of what to cook for dinner. However, when I stumble into a good-looking recipe, I'll go all-out to make a tasty meal for my guys. Frequently, the boys will poke at it if it appears too healthy or unexciting, or eat whatever part strikes their fancy. One evening, while finishing up some Christmas shopping, I'd ended up getting the boys some hot dogs, and I wasn't feeling particularly hungry. Brian was totally cool with that when he got home, because he prides himself in being able to fend for himself. On this particular evening, Ian climbed up to the table to inspect & sample Dad's wares and I heard Ian say, "Mmmm. I like this meal!" I simply had to know what had captured my son's heart, and to my disbelief, it was a sandwich consisting of a soy sausage, vegemite, probably some other condiments, and a can of beets. Apparently, only a true bachelor-at-heart can appeal to the delicate culinary sensibilities of a baby man-in-training.

I will have to say, Brian does have his strokes of genius. Perhaps this next "recipe" speaks to my own highly-refined tastes. We recently discovered the creamy goodness of Greek yogurt. After we polished off a pint of it in one sitting, Brian went to the store and returned with an additional half-dozen pints of plain Greek yogurt. He began experimenting with flavoring it, using various sweet condiments. Thus was born [insert chorus of singing angels]: peanut butter and jelly yogurt! To clarify, this is a puddle of peanut butter yogurt in a bowl beside a puddle of yogurt flavored with Brian's very own muscadine jelly. Scoop a little of each on a spoon, and voila - my heart melts. It seriously almost tastes like a pie filling. Maybe I'll try it on a graham cracker next time.

On a side note, I wrapped up a bunch of stocking stuffers for the boys. This weekend I started letting them open 2 each night (since we will do our GA Christmas sometime this week) - based on a Skinner family tradition. One of the gifts for Isaac was a pointer. It looks like a pointing Mickey Mouse hand on a stick. I'm not sure why this cracked me up so much, but I was in stitches watching him walk around pointing to things with it. He first went to the Christmas tree and gently touched a few ornaments. Our rule for the boys is, when they are near fragile things in a store, "One finger touch." That lets them satisfy their curiosity and greatly reduces the damage potential. This seemed the perfect device for the job. Ian begged a turn, and his first undertaking as Pointer-in-Chief was to aim the finger at his Dad and say, "Go out." Isaac took the plastic digit back and tried his 'hand' at banishing his father. Soon they turned to other tasks, such as pointing out imaginary bicycles and buses. Now begins the countdown until it gets lodged in a nose.

Man At Work

Brian is not an overly excitable guy, but he called me from work today with a glee in his voice, probably two notches higher than when he announced this would be a three-day work week.  "I found a dealer!  Right down town!  I'm headed there now!"  Don't turn him in just yet.  He's just trippin' on -- get this -- Vegemite.

"Vege-what?"  That's what all the Kroger people blankly replied when I attempted to get poor hubby his fix.  [C'mon, folks, do I have to start singing here?  Men At Work?  Land Down Under?  "He just smiled and gave me a vegemite sandwich..."?  O.K., nevermind.  "Do you have a request form?"]

It's pretty good.  When I spread it on toast, it's reminiscent of a french dip sandwich.  But, my lands, this man eats it like I'd eat peanut butter.  Or chocolate.  Or peanut butter wrapped in chocolate.  He seems almost hurt that I'm "barely touching the stuff."  There's been nary a meal prepared lately during which he hasn't been struck giddy with the idea that "this might taste good with some Vegemite!"  After 8 years of marriage, he has me convinced that my cooking warms his heart and belly, so I know I can shake off notions that he's discovered a miracle cure for the mundane meal.  My Knight just loves his Ve-ge-mite.

Back in September, we were fortunate to take a "trip of a lifetime" to Australia and New Zealand.  It was cold, somewhat wet, and I was fairly pregnant, so we kept our adventures pretty tame.  It was amazing nonetheless.  As you can guess, among our souvenirs was Brian's Vegemite addiction.

Back to the phone call.  He told me about his phone conversation with the shop keeper:

B: Do you have Vegemite?
SK: Yes
B: In the 400g size?!
SK: No, just the 150g.
B: [slightly dejected, but still panting] Which is about seven bucks, right?
SK: [possibly starting to feel a bit leery]...Um, y-yess...$6.99....Would you like me to...set some aside for you? [possibly also wondering if he'd prefer her to don a dark hoodie and sunglasses and stand on a street corner]
B: No, thanks.  I'll be there in a minute.

[swooning] I just adore this man.