My friend Bethany is here visiting her grandparents and we got to go out to breakfast without our kiddos this morning.  It was FABULOUS.

We totally milked it for all it was worth and walked around after breakfast-we went to Starbucks and then to Molly Stone’s (kind of like a Whole Foods) to pick up the ingredients for dinner tonight.

A day late, but you won’t tell anyone, right?  I was excited to see that Boar’s Head sells half pounds of bacon. The perfect amount for what I’m making.  I inevitably end up throwing out bacon because I can never get through a package before it goes bad.  Not anymore!

I was also excited to see fresh Black Eyed Peas.  So much easier and faster.

They were on a super sale too.  $1.99 per 11 ounce container. Score!

When I got home, it was evident that Daddy and Lucy had had a good time while Mommy was away.

My parents got Lucy that tunnel for Christmas and she LOVES it.  She actually loves every single toy she got this year.

Speaking of which, I need to go through her toys and give away the stuff that she no longer uses.  Maybe that’ll be my next task?

Back in 2005, when Shaun worked on an hourly help desk (oh how times have changed!), he had to work on New Year’s Eve until 6 PM.  We decided to do dinner in and I found a recipe for cooking shellfish in one pot.  I wrote it out on a piece of paper and can’t find the original anywhere.  I’ve modified it quite a bit since I wrote it out 5 years ago.

We’ve had this every year since then, except for the one year we spent in the Mojave Dessert camping for New Years 2007.  It’s our own little tradition and we love it.

Ingredients:

-2 onions, chopped
-1 head of garlic, chopped
-1 lb or 6 links of chicken sausage
-2 TBSP olive oil
-1 pound new potatoes cut in half (or fourths if they’re large). All the potatoes need to be approximately the same size.
-1/2 tsp salt
-1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
-1.5 lb steamer clams
-1 lb mussels
-1 lb FROZEN shrimp 
-2 cups white wine
-Juice of 2 lemons

Instructions:

-Slice sausage into 1 inch thick pieces. Set aside.

-Over medium high heat, sauté onions and garlic for 15 minutes or until caramelized. Stirring frequently.

-Layer, in this order: potatoes, salt and pepper, sausage, clams, mussels, and shrimp.

-Pour in wine and lemon juice.

-Cook 15 minutes on medium.

-Lower heat to low and cook another 15 minutes on low or until potatoes are tender.

-Enjoy!

This serves about 4. It heats up well the next day but after that, I think you’d need to toss it.

…and I say “No way!’”

In that bad boy, 1 apple, 2 carrots, 1 medium beet (with stems/leaves), a few pieces of kale, and half a Meyer lemon.  According to this (what a great resource btw), you should only have beet juice in small quantities and never by itself:

“Never drink beet juice by itself. Beet juice should always be mixed with other vegetables and/or apple juice. Pure beet juice (from the bulb or greens) can temporarily paralyze your vocal chords, make you break out in hives, increase your heart rate, cause chills or a fever.

Beets are best used in small amounts. I never use more than 1 to 2 ounces of beet juice (approximately ½ a small beet or ¼ a large beet).

Use moderately. Both the roots and greens are powerful cleansers of the body. Beets are said to really cleanse the blood and kidneys and this is why it is suggested you use beets moderately.

Beets (including beet greens) are high in oxalic acid and therefore should be avoided by those who suffer from or are at risk for kidney stones, gout, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis and those whose stomach is easily irritated…

…Since beets are high in oxalic acid, you should also avoid combining beets with other vegetables that are high in calcium, such as broccoli. Oxalic acid combines with calcium to create an indigestible compound. You should also avoid eating calcium rich food immediately after eating or juicing beets or any food high in oxalic acid. This includes foods like tofu.”

I’m glad I looked that up!  Check out the layers right after I juiced it:

I love the foamy stuff at the end of the juicing process:

It was good.  I think the addition of the greens and the kale made it more “green” tasting and I think that the lemon REALLY helps make the green taste more palatable for me.  I like the green taste but the lemon makes me like it a lot more.

I really wonder how many calories are in a glass of juice like this?  I also wonder if it’s okay for me to juice the night before and drink it in the morning?  I don’t think I’ll be able to do this in the morning before work regularly but I could do it the night before.

HAPPY NEW YEAR by the way!!!! As I mentioned yesterday, we celebrated at home.

I made our traditional shellfish in a pot-I’ve been doing this since New Year’s 2005. (I’ll post the recipe later today).

His:

Hers:

Our desserts:

Chocolate cake for me:

Tiramisu for Shaun:

I fell asleep at 11:30. Opps. I also drank too much Veuve Clicquot.  Double oops.

We LOVE Veuve Clicquot.  It was the champagne that we were drinking when Shaun proposed to me.  We try to get it on special occasions and when we can find it for a reasonable price.  We went to Costco yesterday and they had it for $34. SOLD!  I made out at Costco yesterday.

Apples and Meyer lemons-I never would buy their produce before because it would go bad.  Now that I’m juicing it won’t.  I know that it’s not local, but I did buy organic so I’m okay with it. 

Big ‘ol bag of carrots!

CUTIES!

We went to Costco because Shaun’s 3+ year old XBox died us 2 nights ago.  He used that thing almost every night to play XBox Live with his brothers and friends on the East Coast and we use it to watch DVDs and Netflix.  This was an EMERGENCY and we really didn’t want to spend $330 to get a new one.  I suggested taking it back to Costco to see what they would do.  They TOOK IT BACK.  And gave us a FULL REFUND for what I paid for it in 2006-$550!!!  It had an 20 GB hard drive and we were able to get a 120 GB hard drive XBox for $330!!!  Shaun got 2 games as well and he’s giving the additional $150 to me so that I can get a toy. SCORE!

What should I get?