Musings of a Marfan Mom

September 27, 2010
by marfmom
6 Comments

A Poor Attempt at Pork

There is a cardinal rule to hosting guests for dinner: Always make something you’ve successfully made at least once before. You might be tempted to get cocky and pick out a seemingly simple recipe to try out. Please, learn from my example.

We had the young missionaries from our church, friends of my husband’s, over for dinner during that few day period I was on bed rest. Usually I’d make dinner, but since I couldn’t, Mark made his own rendition of my black bean and corn soup. It was great (except there was so much garlic that everyone but Mark teared up like we were cutting onions; clearly he was the one real Italian at the table hahaha)!

I’d just received a copy of the recipe for Cafe Rio pork from a friend’s mom. In a burst of, I don’t know, something, I offered to make the missionaries some if they’d come again for dinner and Settlers of Catan the next week. Cade Rio is apparently THE taco restaurant in Utah; I see people raving online about their pork all the time. I have never been there. Turns out one of the guys is FROM Utah, so once I made the offer he was so excited I couldn’t back out.

Thursday night Mark made a grocery store run for the pork (3 lbs) and marinade ingredients. As he prepared the meat to soak in the Coca-Cola overnight something looked off, but I couldn’t quite figure out what. Several hours later, as we were falling asleep, it hit me.

“Those are pork CHOPS! You didn’t buy pork roast, you bought pork CHOPS!” I exclaimed. This was DEFINITELY my fault. I had only put “pork” on the grocery list, not pork roast. But by now, the meat had been sitting in a bowl of 3 cans of Coke for several hours, so there was no going back.

First thing in the morning, I called my mom to get advice on changing cooking times for chops in the crockpot. We had a good laugh about the whole thing, I planned out the meal, and we continued to chat as I brought the Menininho to the kitchen to make breakfast. That’s when I saw it. The bowl of pork and pop. On the kitchen counter, next to the fridge. Where it had apparently been since 10 pm the night before.

“Scratch that, Mom,” I sighed. “It’s going to be a Little Cesar’s night.”

We’ll try this again sometime, on our own, and when I have more time and energy to put all the preparation in.

What’s your favorite kitchen disaster story?

September 24, 2010
by marfmom
1 Comment

Friday Favorites

Welcome to Friday Favorites! If you’re new to the blog, here’s how to play along. Every Friday I devote my post to showcasing awesome blog posts by other bloggers that I’ve read over the past week or two. Then, I invite you to do the same and link up. This is any easy way to share the love and find great new blogs.

Today I’ve got a lot of favorite posts! So, in no particular order…

Jenn runs the blog The Connected Mom. I came across her post What You Need to Know if You’re Going to Breastfeed and ladies, it’s awesome advice. I highly recommend it to anyone who is pregnant. I wish I’d known about some of this before I’d had M., like that lots of IV fluids can artificially inflate a baby’s birth weight. It’s not harmful to the baby, but can cause medical professionals to worry about their feeding unnecessarily (“Oh, baby has lost too much weight; there must be something wrong with your milk coming in, better supplement!”). Go, go read it!

Next up is Elizabeth of Spilt Milk, an Australian blogger I met through Twitter (like how I’ve found most fabulous bloggers). She’s written a couple posts this week that I loved. The Right to Bear is about the comfort objects that so many of us had in childhood (mine were Shamu the killer whale and Pink Blankey, the pink blanket), that we may even still have (Shamu’s on my dresser, PB is in the nursery), and how adults’ impressions of these objects can shape our coping. Second, The Wrong Prescription? covers a proposition in Australia to make infant formula available by prescription only. Elizabeth delves into the many reasons this idea may not be such a great one. Both pieces are extremely thoughtful.

Finally, Liz’s posts really resonated with me. I only just came across her blog, thanks to a link up post by Arwyn of Raising My BoyChick, but Liz has chronic pain and uses a wheelchair. Although our situations are not the same, I could really relate to the concerns she voices in Pain, Disability, and Parenting. I worry how my illness will affect my kids and whether they will focus on the “Mommy can’ts” instead of “Mommy cans.” There’s something comforting in knowing I’m not alone in that. Kids and Wheelchair Manners is just awesome (any post that uses the phrase “gleeful zombie” is bound to be). It contains great guidelines for parents (especially able-bodied parents, who may not be so used to wheelchairs themselves) in helping their children learn about disabilities. I hope that when M. begins to have questions about these sorts of things that I’ll be able to guide him towards people like Liz, who are open discussing disability.

Also, please don’t forget about the Winter Crafts Carnival Linky! It closes late tonight/early tomorrow morning.