Are You Ready For a Throwdown?

Daddy Dude loves to watch Food Network and "Throwdown" (with Bobby Flay) is probably his favorite. He recently bought the "Throwdown" cookbook and decided to make some meatball lasagna.



Here are my happy meatballers... (hey, wouldn't that be a great name for a roller derby team?)



Ah... up close and personal with a bunch of meatballs...

These were baked for about 30 min and then simmered in sauce. And this was just prep!


Did I mention I was upstairs happily scrapping away? By myself? What a lovely treat!

Ta dah! A mountain of yummy lasagna - layers upon layers of thick gooey stuff. Tons of ricotta cheese and even more mozarella. Not for the faint of heart... or the lactose-intolerant!


Daddy Dude did a great job - thanks, honey!

Ah... it's that time of year again! Actually, we hadn't eaten any girl scout cookies in several years - we are happy to have found a supplier again.


And last but not least... we are trying to teach the girls how to handle money, so they get an allowance and they get to go shopping. Mika's behavior at the store was frustrating one day, because she wasn't listening to me or being considerate of others. At my wit's end, I finally asked her if she knew any of my "rules".

"What rules?" she asked. "I don't know what you're talking about!" Meanwhile, Marika - right next to her - starts rattling them off: "Don't chew with your mouth open... sneeze into your elbow..."

So, I told the girls when they got home, that they had to make a list of my "do's and don't's". They really got into it (apparently, it wasn't a punishment at all) and came up with a list. They still refer to it, which makes me laugh.