Quotable Quotes and Odds & Ends

"Mommy, we need to have 2 pets so if Casey dies can we get a fish?" (my 4 yr old son last week when having a serious discussion about death)

"Ouch, my humerus hurts".  "We don't say B-U-T-T, we call it a rectum!" (again the 4yr old who has memorized all bones and organs in the body and is now refering to everything by it's proper medical name.  He could probably pass a high school A&P class!).

"Mommy, we don't say the word stupid because stupid is a bad mean word.  I never say stupid or call anyone stupid!"  (this from my 3-yr old daughter who relished using the forbidden word over and over in a sentence while preaching against it's use).

On another note, every day I am so thankful that my husband is an engineer.  Not only that, but I love his creativity.  We have had a little trouble with our other dog the last few nights when we put him up for bed.  He whines and barks since it is the first time he has been alone since he was a puppy.  He's fine during the day, but nights have been hard.  He calms down if we talk to him, but that is incredibly inconvenient when he is on the first floor and you are on the second trying to go to sleep.  So, my husband pulled the baby monitor out of my younger son's room (we never use it for him anyway) and rigged it so that if Gromit barked we could soothe him from the comforts of our own bed.  It worked like a charm!  That's my quick thinkin' engineer!

Lastly, I have a couple of recipes to share.  The first is for slow cooker roast turkey.  We tried it for the first time yesterday and the whole family loved it!  It turned out WAY better than any beef roast I have ever made.  I got a 3-4 pound turkey breast and removed the mesh.  In a large crockpot I cut up a bunch of different fresh veggies (potatoes, carrots, celery, parsnips, etc - anything works!) and arranged them in the bottom of the crockpot.  I placed the turkey breast on top and sprinkled onion soup mix on top (you can make your own seasoning mix if you'd like, you just have to be very liberal with the seasonings).  I poured about 1 cup of chicken broth over the turkey & veggies and cooked all day on low.  It was DELICIOUS!  The turkey was tender and seasoned all the way through as if it had been brined.  The veggies had great flavor and needed no additional seasoning!  Best of all, the meal made leftovers and enough for sandwiches for a week.  Not bad for a 20 minute prep & go meal!

My other new love is steamed broccoli.  I have been buying broccoli heads by the pound.  It is so easy just to cut into florets, and steam for 10 minutes.  I season it lightly with butter (1 TBS) salt & pepper.  My kids love how brightly green the florets are after steaming and I am thrilled to be getting such an easy veggie in them.  I have been so proud of how well my older two have been eating lately - they are branching out and enjoying all kinds of foods.  It has made cooking a lot of fun!