Sick days.... or not

Valerie woke up this morning not feeling well. Actually she went to bed last night complaining of a sore throat. I told her that hopefully she'd get a good night's rest and feel better in the morning. At about daylight, which was about 5:45am, I hear "Mooooom it's still not betterrrr!!" I got up and made Val a bed on the couch. I gave her the usual "orange Tylenol" (Motrin.) She went back to sleep. I didn't! When Clint got up, Val was still complaining her throat hurt bad. We started going through the list of things to make her feel better. Somehow I came up with the idea to make chicken stew for lunch, since she won't eat soup. And I heard myself saying I'd make MeMe's potato salad. (what?)



If there's one thing I HATE, it's messing with potatoes!! I never buy them. I happen to have some because our neighbor gave us a bag full from his garden. I just loathe the peeling. Everything I make usually has bits of potato skins left on because I just can't stand getting all those itty bitty pieces off. Ha! But of course we do all these things we dislike for the little people we love! So I sent Clint to the store on before he left for the day to get the rest of what I needed. And I made MeMe's potato salad.


Then I started the chicken stew. Burned the first roux because I was trying to tend to crying kids at the same time. Tossed it and started over. Better. I almost always have stash of the trinity in the freezer. Celery does not freeze well, but when it's all you got it's better than nothing. Onions... check! Bell pepper.... where's the dern bell pepper?? We're out. So I had to improvise and ripped open a bag of veggie stir fry and picked out the bell peppers. (Because I'm crafty like that!!) Of course by now, Valerie is feeling MUCH better and announces she no longer wants chicken stew. TOO BAD! Chicken stew and homemade potato salad for lunch! Yummy!

Then later came the real fun! Valerie's Nanny gave her a Silly Snacks Cookbook quite some time ago. It's one of the bedtime stories we MUST read from time to time. Val has picked out numerous things she wanted to make, but quite honestly some of them are weird and just way too involved. One of the things Val has been eyeing is Rocky Road Ice Cream. So I told Val we'd make it today. It seemed easy enough and of course I like using my new ice cream maker.

Milk sweetened with condensed milk, chocolate syrup, vanilla, and marshmallows. Sugar rush anyone???