Aunt M and Uncle J came over for dinner last night.
Instead of drawing for gifts, we kids have spent the last few Christmases drawing for treats. The rule is you can only spend 20 bucks, packaged or homemade. This year we swapped treats with Aunt M.
On New Years Eve, she brought us enough ice cream to build an igloo and enough toppings to paint its walls. In return, the Boss busted out her sweet and sour meatballs, fried rice and egg rolls.
Now, I don't mean to brag (yes I do), but there is a reason that the talking scale starts to scream when it sees me coming. I would not be pushing three and a half bills if the Boss was burning toast and salting the kool-aid. In addition to being smart,beautiful, and the mother of my children, the woman can FLAT OUT COOK!! And sweet and sour meatballs are one of her "show off" meals.
They are AWESOME! Ask Aunt M, she'll tell ya.
Anyway, sweet and sour meatballs means leftover white rice in the fridge this morning and that means I made one of my specialties. Rice and raisins.
So easy a cave man can do it. Put the rice back in the rice cooker and cover it with milk. Dust the top with cinnamon and a sprinkle of nutmeg. Add a couple hand fulls of raisins (stale raisins actually work better than fresh ones), a cap full of vanilla and enough sugar to make Bob and Jillian devote an episode of "Biggest Loser" to calling you "The Great Satan". Turn the cooker back on and wait for the click. Pour cream or more milk over each serving to cool it off and watch your belt burst.
When I was in Taiwan, I lived on the stuff. The perfect missionary breakfast. High energy, low effort, and if you'll pardon the understatement, plentiful ingredients. You can also do a version with cocoa powder and chocolate chips, and once I made a holiday version that replaced the milk with egg nog, the raisins with cranberry raisins, and added the zest and juice of one orange. But it's hard to beat the original.
That's why I was surprised when Reaggers refused to eat hers this morning. From the time her mom drops her off until she gets picked up, the child wants to eat. But when I handed her a bowl of rice and raisins, she turned up her nose at it and refused to take it. She would not even smell it.
What the heck?
Last night her mother called me. I asked how Bub was feeling since when he was here yesterday he had gotten into some Reese's Pieces. Not good for a kid with peanut allergies (see previous postings). She said Bub was fine. I told Beak that I didn't like to fix peanut butter sandwiches for Peff and Reaggers anymore for fear Bub would try to steal a bite.
Beak said it was OK and then told me that this was why she was calling. She had a bloggable story about Reaggers and peanut butter. It seems they were watching TV when someone said that chocolate and peanut butter was the perfect combination.
Reaggers took umbrage with this and said that it was NOT the perfect combination. Beak, knowing the answer already by sad experience, asked Reaggers what she thought was the perfect combination for peanut butter.
Without hesitation, Reaggers shouted....
...."Ham!"
(shudder)
Apparently, the child really, really likes peanut butter and ham sandwiches. But not rice and raisins.
Yeah. I know.
Whoever first used the insult "your taste is all in your mouth" never met my niece.
He can find her on EBay.
I will admit, it is all my fault. One day Raegan and Mason wanted sandwiches. There were quite a few choices so I let them pick from the fixings on the counter. They both chose peanut butter and ham. I tried to entice them with yummy raspberry jam, honey, grape jelly but to no avail. Then I tried suggesting mustard or miracle whip (known as tuna fish by Mason) as a replacement for the peanut butter, but again, no takers. I say if Elvis could eat peanut butter with some of the things he did then these kids can do what they want. Next time I serve ham, I am checking the Food Network for a Peanut Butter Glaze. Then who will be laughing?
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