Thomas and the Slide

Hmm ...

Maybe ...

Whoosh.

What's next?

Food Friday - Sesame Noodles

So, Food Fridays are hard. I thought it would be easy because I already have all of my recipes in a word document. Cut and paste is pretty simple. But the pictures trip me up all the time. I am rarely moved to make a recipe that isn't accompanied by a photo so it's not something I want to skip.

Taking a decent picture of food is really hard when you know as little about photography as I do. One thing I do know is that you need good light and the light in our house is not good. Food photographed in bad light does not look appetizing. So, I have to go outside to take the picture. And somehow that's always a problem. Either I start cooking too late and it's dark outside when dinner is ready or I forget to take the picture until after it's gotten dark. Unfortunately, leftovers do not photograph well either.

But! I managed to take a picture of these Sesame Noodles.


These noodles have a unique flavor. They don't taste like anything else in our regular dinner rotation and they're better at room temperature than hot. It's a nice departure from everything else that we eat.


Sesame Noodles
Adapted from Everyday Food, May 2008

6 oz or 1/2 box of whole wheat spaghetti
1 small onion, quartered and sliced into thin strips
1 red bell pepper, sliced into thin strips
2 small heads broccoli, cut into florets/stems peeled and chopped
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
2 tsp toasted sesame oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

Cook spaghetti according package directions using extra water to leave room for the vegetables. 4 minutes before spaghetti is done, add onion, bell pepper and broccoli. Cook until pasta is al dente and vegetables are tender-crisp. Drain, reserving 1/2 cup of pasta water.

Meanwhile, whisk together peanut butter, sugar, vinegar, soy sauce, oil, garlic and red pepper flakes. Thin the sauce with reserved pasta water. You want a pourable consistency. Add sauce to hot pasta and vegetables. Toss to coat. Serve at room temperature or chilled.

Shadow Chef

Thomas makes dinner.

Pour in the Rice

Add the Spices

Some Water

Black Beans

New Tool

Measure the Tomatoes

Give it a Stir

Cover and Simmer

Too Cute to Kill

This ... This ... big jerk is luck to be alive. If I hadn't poured milk, blood, sweat and tears into this kid for the last two years, I might have killed him today. He locked me out of the house! Twice!

While I was in the garage this morning doing laundry, Thomas locked the door. Only, he doesn't know how to unlock it. I went outside to an open window and told him to go open the door for mommy. He just stared at me. He wouldn't even go over to the door and try to open it. So, I went back into the garage and knocked on the door. Nothing. When I went back to the window to see what he was doing, he was sitting on the couch watching Sesame Street.

Fortunately, I found a way to take the screen apart without ruining it. I climbed in through the window. Thomas didn't even blink an eye. I turned the television off and told him not to play with the door anymore. I put our extra set of keys in the garage. Then, I went outside and fixed the screen.

A little while later, I went out to hang laundry. Thomas's laundry no less. I was just thinking that I needed to go inside to check on him when I looked up and noticed that the door from the garage to the backyard was closed. We leave it open all day long to keep the garage from getting too hot. I walked over and it was locked. Thomas had gone out into the garage, shut the door and locked me out. On purpose.

I looked in the window to find Thomas. He was, I kid you not, sitting on the loveseat flipping through a magazine. When I called through the window to him, he wouldn't even look at me. So, I had to take the screen apart all over again.

And to think I was planning to write a nice post about what a good sleeper he has turned into and how he likes to play in his crib and what a nice change that is from when he spent most of his time in bed screaming. There will be no nice posts about Thomas today.

Fruits of my Labor

I grew a watermelon! A big, delicious watermelon! Yay!

Seriously, everyone should garden. Growing this watermelon has been one of the most satisfying things I have ever done.

Bubble Baths and the Clearance Queen

Thomas has fallen in love with bubble baths. He stands in front of the sink and stares at the bottle on the counter while I start his water. He wants to make sure I don't forget. He even says bubble now, the whole word. (It's number 22. Yes, I'm keeping track.)

Walmart put their summer toys on clearance two weeks ago. I've been stalking the aisle ever since. Yesterday two of the things I wanted finally hit rock bottom. I got the little Tadoodles boat he's playing with and a 3D Sidewalk Chalk set for $2 each. I love getting good deals.

Tee Vee

Thomas changed from a no-tv-kid to a television lover almost overnight.

When we bought the Cars paraphanalia for his room, we thought he should probably see the movie. So, we used some of his birthday money to order the dvd from Amazon. After I ordered it, I thought I should try to get Thomas used to the tv. I'm all about value; I wanted to get our $16.95 out of that dvd. So, I found a Thomas the Tank Engine movie on Netflix Watch Instantly. I set it up on the Roku for Thomas to watch. He hated it. He seemed frustrated that the pictures moved before he could get a really good look at them. I had to turn it off because he was whining and crying. So, when the dvd came in the mail, I wasn't sure it was such a good buy.

There was nothing to worry about.

Thomas Watches Cars from Leslie Ann McNolty on Vimeo.

It may not look like it but he really was excited. I guess he has naturally discriminating taste in film. The production values of Thomas the Tank Engine just cannot compete with state of the art computer animation.

Around the same time, Thomas found my old collection of Sesame Street Treasury Books on the bottom shelf of his bookcase. He started choosing them at storytime before his nap and at bedtime. So, I recorded a couple of episodes of Sesame Street. And that's when his conversion became total. After that first episode of Sesame Street, he literally stood in front of the television and demanded more!

Fortunately, he's not a slack-jawed, open-mouthed addict. He watches for 10 or 15 minutes and then wanders off to play with his cars or look at a book. He'll come back a little while later to watch some more.

And he is proof positive that Sesame Street is educational. Thomas's favorite character is Cookie Monster. He thinks that cat is hilarious. Just 10 days ago, he said cook for cookie. Not anymore.

Cookie from Leslie Ann McNolty on Vimeo.