Midweek Meanderings

Our dinner last night was very nice.  Tingting decided that she was too tired to drive home so she and Little Miss spent the night with us.  Our little girl got overly tired and was NOT going to go to sleep DANG IT!!  And she let you know it every time you tried to put her down.

Finally, around 11 pm I sent Ting off to get some sleep.  Melody was fed, changed, burped and STUBBORN so Grammy took over so Mom could sleep.  Now in my heart of hearts, I believe when a baby gets over tired and all her needs are met that it will not hurt her to cry herself to sleep.  But I am only Grammy and Mommy doesn't think Little Miss is old enough to cry herself to sleep unless you are rocking and bouncing her.  So I rocked and bounced and eventually Little Miss gave up the fight...until I went to lay her down....then I rocked and bounced some more and then right around midnight, she gave up the ghost.  Around 4 AM she awoke and I took her up to be fed and then grabbed my pillow from the couch and crawled into my bed.  We heard her again around 7:30 and then around 10:30 Mom and baby came bouncing down the stairs happy and refreshed.

Perfectly content to amuse herself for a bit while we had breakfast.

When they were all packed up and ready to leave, I followed them out of the driveway and took care of the things that needed to be done at the food pantry.   Frank arrived home right before I did and was all gung ho to start taking down the tree.  I was gung ho for a nap and since Frank did not want to go through with me what I went through with Melody, he tucked me into bed.  I awoke feeling as happy and chipper as Melody did this morning.  

Frank threw together our Mac and Cheese for dinner tonight while I threw together our salad.  This salad comes from a cookbook that I got as part of a set from Frank's Mom years ago as a Christmas present.  It is copyrighted in 1987 so that gives you some idea...but I have found a lot of great recipes in here through the years including my tomato soup which has become a family favorite.

This is an easy peasy salad, reminiscent of my Cucumbers in Sour Cream.  This recipe uses plain yogurt instead of sour cream, lemon juice and salt and pepper.  It called for green onions but I didn't have any on hand so I used a bit of sweet onion instead.  I used greek yogurt which wasn't even heard of when this book came out and I added some Gourmet Garden garlic paste and dill to the mix. If I were to make this again I would reduce the amount of lemon juice to that of a half a lemon.

Sliced Cucumbers and Onion with Yogurt Dressing

adapted from The Complete Start your Meal Cookbook.

1 English Cucumber, thinly sliced

1 small piece of a sweet onion, thinly sliced

Juice of 1 lemon (in the future I will reduce this to 1/2 a lemon)

1 individual serving size of plain greek yogurt

salt and pepper to taste

1/4 t. Gourmet Garden Garlic Paste

1/2 t. Gourmet Garden Dill Weed

Mix cucumber, onion and lemon juice in a small bowl.  Let stand 1 hour.  Drain well and then mix with yogurt and seasonings.  Chill before serving.  Print Recipe