Maniacal Monday #5

You know what sucks? Trying new recipes. I truly love moussaka. Could eat my weight in it. So when I found a recipe for it, I was all kinds of excited, and couldn’t wait to make it. My first indication it would be a mistake was when the recipe called for panko. After looking up what that is (it’s a flaky breadcrumb), I realized that it was going to be a problem finding a gluten-free version. Let me state for the record that crushed up rice chex is NOT a good substitute. Had no trouble getting it to stick to my fingers, but would not stick to the eggplant. Also, the total time for the recipe was 2 hours 40 minutes. I should have doubled that. As I told Petra when she asked why I was making that at 10pm, there is a reason I work in IT and not as a chef. The kicker? It wasn’t even good. After all that work, it just doesn’t taste that good, and not at all like any moussaka I’ve ever had. Epic fail. Yes, I am eating it anyway. I will say this though, the initial sauce (ground beef/lamb/bison, onion, garlic, oregano, crushed red pepper, red wine) smelled absolutely wonderful! I’m sure it was the garlic. I have developed an almost weird (or maybe full-on weird) craving for garlic. Anyway, will never attempt moussaka again. That was a waste of a Friday night.

Speaking of Friday night, I got a little something in my head Friday:

Petra got me & Molly with that on Facebook one morning. We probably deserved it, but still. Anyway, I popped it onto her Facebook wall Friday, and she kept refusing to watch it and claimed that she had it blocked from her head. Me being me, I saw her post that she was taking a nap, and proceeded to text “Pink fluffy unicorns dancing on rainbows” to her so she would see that as soon as she woke up. She claimed that didn’t work either so I decided that if I had to go into Sanford for any reason, I was going by her house and singing it to her. Normally, I would be pissed that I had to go get milk, but not that night. I headed right over to her house, and she was not kidding about having 1,000 cats. I rang the doorbell, and got covered in kittens. And no one came to the door. So I’m thinking they are either out back or otherwise can’t hear the doorbell because the door was open. So I texted her again to let her know I was on her front porch, and by this time, one of the kittens was parked on my lap like that was where it belonged. Jamie couldn’t take it anymore and had joined me, and decided she was taking one of the black kittens. An uncomfortable amount of time had passed by this time, and I had decided that there was something going on that wasn’t going to be interrupted, and we left once I made Jamie put the cat back. Petra didn’t get my text until about an hour later, and begged me to come back and get a cat. LOL

I volunteered to help man one of the rest stations for the CARA Ride for their Lives race Saturday morning. Naturally I was all kinds of tired after being up late the night before with the epic fail moussaka. But, I had prepared, and had my directions and stuff all printed out, and on the directions I hand wrote “Don’t forget chair.” The chair was on the front porch right by the steps ready for me to pick up and throw in the van on my way out. Yeah, that was a fail too. I forgot my chair. Thankfully, the gentleman from Performance Cycles brought 2, so I didn’t have to stand like a dummy the whole time. I did a lot of standing, but there was no other way to get around it while making 2.5 loaves worth of pb&j. I was on the first shift which ended at 11, but the last riders came through before Alex & I left the parking lot. LOL Oh, well.

I went to a mother-daughter tea party at church that afternoon with my daughter who didn’t want to be there. I think she was less than impressed with my top hat. Haha She wouldn’t let me continue to wear it in the van after we left and headed to Target. Hahaha

Target. That was a fun trip. To sum it up, the cashier asked me as she was ringing me up if I found everything ok. My answer? “I have no idea. I don’t remember what we came to get.” But we got a honey badger t-shirt…

Not the actual t-shirt...because none of us wears a XXL...but that is what it looks like.

Oh, yeah, the tea party? It was decided that the women would wear their hats to church for Mother’s Day. Yes, I totally wore a top hat to church. It think it inspired me to really belt out Sing Sing Sing. Hahahaha! I did almost crack up singing it because I could see movement from the youth out of the corner of my eye, and was sure they were doing the hand motions.

And because we had the white trash yard again because everyone around us had mowed, I started mowing shortly after we got home from church – and after I put the belt back on the blade pulleys. It was cutting like crap too. Not like dull blade crap, but no power crap. The belt came off again about halfway, and got up underneath one of the pulleys that has a cover over it. I couldn’t get the belt back up onto the pulley (wondering the whole time how it came off), and finally had to go get tools and take the cover over. When I swung back around, I stopped the blades, and just put the mower in park (still running) while I put the tools back on the porch. The hubbster said, “Oh, that’s bad,” and I turned to see smoke coming out from under the mower. The pulley had seized up even though the blades were disengaged, and was burning up. So, I was done with the riding mower at that point. There just wasn’t enough time to run to Lowe’s to get a new belt before the rain hit. So I proceeded to push mow. Pushing wasn’t near as bad as it used to be, and I can only assume that is because I am running now? Anyway, it was taking FOREVER, and finally the hubbster came over and said he couldn’t sit and watch me push mowing on Mother’s Day. So he finished the yard, while I did laundry – half of which is still in the dryer.

11 Responses to 'Maniacal Monday #5'

  1. Annoying when your cooking endeavors turn out that well. I’ve had that happen now and again. 😉

    Recently, my daughter went to a third grade tea party. She liked it, myself; at her age, my mom would have been dragging me kicking and screaming to one of those things. 😉

    It sounds as if you had a productive weekend. This past weekend, I did additional yard work too, part of that work was clearing up an area near our woods. I think it’ll be nice to sit back there when the fireflies are out. I’m thinking about adding a pond back there too.
    I think I’ll nix the koi fish, since there are quite a few stray cats in the area. It’s rural, so there’s plenty of wildlife to keep their bellies full.

    I’m sure I’ll rethink “how nice” that is, when the mosquitos are out in full screen, part of our property is woods, about 3.5 acres, and there’s a stream located on it, so we get plenty of those pesky critters.

    I’ve never heard the song, and I refuse to click on the link. I have enough silly songs stuck in my head!

    Happy Belated Mother’s Day!

    • Proofreading fail….

      Annoying when your cooking endeavors don’tturn out that well. I’ve had that happen now and again. 😉

      I’m sure I’ll rethink “how nice” that is, when the mosquitos are out in full force

    • DragonLady says:

      This isn’t the first recipe to not be so good, but it is the first that was that much trouble to end up not good. I found another recipe for moussaka that may be better, but I will have to get this one first.

      That was my first tea party. That isn’t really my thing, but hanging out with the ladies at my church make it ok. And I had a nice cup of chai. 😉

      I guess it was productive, though not as productive as I would have liked. Oh, I totally left out the run! Oh well, that will be a Training Tuesday post. lol There was just too much going that I had to do. This coming weekend is already looking booked too.

      We got rid of our “frog pond” a couple of years ago. As boggy as it is around our house, we didn’t need any additional mosquito breeding ground. I love sitting on the porch and watching the fireflies…of course, someone needs to clean off the porch…again… :sigh:

      Oh, come on. You know you want another silly song. LOL :cheesy:

      • That’s always great, when you’re in good company everything’s better. I enjoy my quilting group, and have bonded with a few people in my new membership class too, and some of the church staff too. So I always enjoy chatting with them when I see them.

        As a child, I mainly played with boys. My brother and I were about the same age and had the same friends. 😉 So no, my time would have been miserable at a tea party. Jade is a girly girl and she’s a tomboy, so through her I’m doing a lot of girly things. I tell her she keeps me in touch with the feminine side. She’s way more emotional than I’ve ever been. Being that she’s my daughter, I don’t feel “odd” when I ask her why in the world is she crying (over something I’d deem as “silly”.

        Ever heard of the book, Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus… based on the “emotions” I’m definitely from Mars. The author, John Gray, mentioned that some women would relate more to Mars. I fall in that category.

        And no I won’t click…

        You can thank John of Macbros Place for that.

        He has trained me not to do that. I was lured in by some of his “awesome videos” before. Admittedly, many of them his videos are good, but some were an obvious plant to have those annoying songs stuck in your brain! I’m still trying to think of a suitable punishment for him. 😉

  2. Petra says:

    Nope. Still not clicking! lol

    Did you video tape the top hatted Sing Sing Sing??? 🙂

    Yeah, you aren’t supposed to mow the lawn on Mother’s Day! 😉

    • DragonLady says:

      That’s fine because next time I see you, I’m singing it to you. Just sayin’… 🙂

      HAHAHAHA! No, I did not, though I should have gotten at least a photo because I was also wearing a dress. lol

      Yes, well, Mother’s Day is secondary when 2 bottles of wine are consumed on an empty stomach. But, he did weed eat and complain about how everything we buy is “a piece of shit”. It was a fun day, needless to say. :tappity:

  3. teeni says:

    I am a sucker. I clicked. Bad idea. And I need to try and play that on my ukulele so I can drive my husband crazy. But his open-mouth smiling expression also cracked me up. I’m so sorry you had a bad experience with the moussaka. I have found that some things are not worth the trouble to make at home and will just order them out. LOL. However, I do make a LOT at home so I allow myself that little treat. I hope the rest of your week is better!

    • DragonLady says:

      HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! Catchy isn’t it? LOL He cracks me up because that opened mouth smile is something my son would do plus the guy looks a lot like a friend of mine.

      I have since found another recipe for moussaka that looks like it would be better, and even a bit easier. It is at least more descriptive. lol I may order some gluten free panko and try it again sometime when I have a whole day to kill. 😉