a little pasta with wine, hold the pasta

Well, I made it. Today is Friday, and somehow I made it through the week. I just have to get the monkeys out the front door this morning, help out with the California Gold Rush (a reenactment, not the real thing), and I am home free.

We pick up our vegetables on Saturday mornings, and I don't think I have ever looked forward to them as much as I do this week. For the past few Saturdays, we have been running like crazy all over town (and out-of-town), and I haven't been the one who picked up or unpacked the veggies. Somehow unpacking, assessing, and putting away the vegetables helps me make a mental plan of how to use them all week ... or at least what needs to be used.

This week, I winged it. I came up with some combinations I am not real proud of, but my family ate 3 squares a day, and the veggies are more or less used up. (Except a bunch of green bell peppers. Ideas, anyone?)

Like I predicted, it was salads and salads this week. A big salad-bar type ranch-covered mess, an Asian-ish slaw-ish chicken and chard thing, a chicken salad scooped with pita chips.

This week was also... I hate to admit... a frozen pizza, a trip through In-N-Out, and lots of snacking.

What can I say? We made it to Friday alive and intact.

Yesterday, I was supposed to bring heavy cream to the preschool so the kids could try churning butter. I bought the cream a couple days ahead. However, in the morning rush to get everyone out the door, I completely forgot to grab the cream from it's hiding spot in the fridge.

I remembered as I pulled into the school parking lot. Since I only had a few minutes, and there is a market much closer to the school than my house is, I ran over there to buy new cream. As I was wandering the aisles (don't you hate trying to navigate a new grocery store?) looking for the cream, I thought about how I could use the cream that was sitting in my kitchen. I remembered one of my friends from the preschool mentioning a pasta dish she really likes that uses cream. I decided to grab the white wine that I would need for it while I was there. With wine in hand and cream at home, I was all set for actually cooking dinner.

I got back to the preschool, and mentioned to that friend that I bought white wine and I would be making her pasta dish for dinner. "Wine? It doesn't contain wine. Just cream, lemon juice, basil, parmesan cheese....."

Of course, I have no parmesan cheese at the moment.

AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH.

Oh well, don't feel too bad for me. I put the dinner idea on hold for another night (thus keeping my streak alive). I found a decent use for the wine. heehee. The kids at the preschool churned their butter, I brought home a jar of the buttermilk that came out of it, and we all enjoyed buttermilk pancakes for breakfast.

I love happy endings.