I'm a little late to the party, and other ramblings

Some of you may laugh at me for this because I am so lame, but for others of you I want to share some wisdom that has never been shared with me.

On my Christmas list this year was a food processor. A nice medium sized one. I've owned the small two cup type and recently (last 3 years) used it often for grinding up chicken, or sweet potatoes, one breast or potato at a time...tedious, yes. So I thought hm, what thing do I sort of need, but would never go out an buy for myself because well, do I really need a new kitchen gadget? (I would always answer yes to that question, but Scott feels differently, he tends to go on cleaning binges and I find out when I go to use my jar opener that he has decided that it is unnecessary and absolutely needs to be thrown away, now.) Plus I've got pretty decent knife skills so until recently, (now that I cook in bulk and freeze multiple meals,) it's been easy enough to chop, dice and slice by hand. Any way, I was really happy to get my food processor and even more excited to use it.

So the other day I was at Costco and we needed cheese, as we always do in this dairy loving family. I normally buy the brand name version that comes in cute little 2 pound blocks, however, I'm feeling frugal ($400 in swim lessons will do that to me)so I decided to try the Kirkland cheese. The one that comes in the gigantic 5 pound block of cheese, which automatically makes me thing of the West Wing episode where they have the "big block of cheese day" Which was a great episode on a great TV show. If you ever have a few hours months to spare, I highly recommend the first few seasons of the West Wing. I personally watched every single episode, because I am like that, but some people tired of the series around season 4 or 5. I LOVE Aaron Sorkin, and I have watched all episodes of all his series even if I was the only one. He's doing the Facebook Movie by the way and I am really interested in what he comes up with.

Like I said in the title of this post...ramblings.

Okay, so what to do with a big block of cheese? Well, grate it and freeze it of course. I happen to be the proud owner of 3 deep freezers so there is never usually room in one of them for extra staples. I buy milk on sale (organic 1/2 gallons buy one get one free for $4) and freeze it. Anything else we might use in bulk, chicken, etc. if it's on sale, I stock up. (rambling)

So normally I would have had to grate all of that cheese by hand or freeze it in chunks for grating later (which is okay too). But with my handy new food processor, I grated 5 pounds of cheese in like 10 minutes. The hardest part was getting it into the baggies. Why didn't someone tell me how cool these things are?

I also shredded lettuce and made guacamole, all with a swift push of a button. Wow.

I can't wait to make some vegetarian lasagna, all that shredding of veggies, it will be so fast! So simple, so quick. This thing is AWESOME!

So I need to know what else can I do with this thing?


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Out of the mouths of:

Evan: Evan was SHOCKED to see a blue door (pause for effect) on the BOUNCY.

Ryan: Wait, I have an idea. (runs off)

*****
Evan: All of a sudden Evan woke up and there was a monster.
Me: A Monster?
Evan: A Ryan Monster, and he said "Wake UP!"

*****

Ryan: Mom, ... (yes Ryan has gone from calling me Mommy, all the time to Mom. sigh. they grow up too fast. Thank goodness when he is upset he still calls me Mommy.)

*****

Ryan: (The few mornings and afternoons before Christmas) Wake Up. It's Christmas time!!!!

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I've got so much rumbling around in my brain to write about, but never enough quiet time, energy, etc. to get it out of my brain through my fingers.

I HAVE to write about Evan's EATING!!! New Year's Eve, and a couple of other things, but for now, I HAVE to go to bed.