When I graduated from High School I went to work in the jewelry section of a local department store. I loved everything about jewelry, but my favorite had to be the watch section. I looked at cool watches all day long and in the end purchased a few. My favorite one had a pretty leather band, and a HUGE face. Ever since that time I’ve always been drawn to the large faced watches or ones with really unique shapes. Now that I’m a bit older, I’ve added the bracelet type bands to my likes.

I’ve been online looking for a Father’s Day gift for the Chef, and when I was looking at Movado watches for him, I found a few that I really like for me. What makes thewatchery.com so nice is that you literally get a free watch with most purchases. So I can get get his and mine for the price of one. If I were to choose, I would choose this luxury watch:

I love the band, I love the face, and I really love that it is both classy, yet casual. The Chef rarely has an opportunity to dress up, but when he does, this one covers both needs.

The price is right, and with the opportunity to get a second watch free, it fits most any budget! Dad’s and Grad’s both would love an item like this!

I got this in an email and I have to say, it fits this family to a T! Even the fact that the Chef is a BBQ man by day and night!! Let me know if you have this same kind of experience around your house! Enjoy!

BBQ RULES

We are about to enter the summer and BBQ season. Therefore it is important to refresh you memory on the etiquette of this sublime outdoor cooking activity, as it’s the only type of cooking that a ‘real’ man will do, probably because there is an element of danger involved.

When a man volunteers to do the BBQ the following chain of events are put into motion;

Routine…

1-The woman buys the food
2-The woman makes the salad, prepares the vegetables, and makes dessert.
3-The woman prepares the meat for cooking, places it on a tray along with the necessary cooking utensils and sauces, and takes it to the man who is lounging beside the grill-beverage in hand.

Here comes the important part:

4-THE MAN PLACES THE MEAT ON THE GRILL.

More routine…

5-The woman goes inside to organize the plates and cutlery.
6-The woman comes out to tell the man that the meat is burning. He thanks her and asks if she will bring another beverage while he deals with the situation.

Important again:

7-THE MAN TAKES THE MEAT OFF OF THE GRILL AND HANDS IT TO THE WOMAN.

More routine…

8-The woman prepares the plates, salad, bread, utensils, napkins, sauces, and brings them to the table.
9-After eating, the woman clears the table and does the dishes.

And most important of all:

10-Everyone PRAISES the MAN and THANKS HIM for his cooking efforts.
11-The man asks the woman how she enjoyed ‘her night off’. And upon seeing her annoyed reation, concludes that there’s just no pleasing some women!

Is this not an exact recreation of this most cherished summer rituals? I thought it was very well written!

Tonight for dinner I made my husbands favorite dish. Pork Chop Casserole. It’s so easy to make, and yet so homey and tasty! It is however, made with two ingredients he never liked so I would only make it on nights he had to work. Then one evening he came home late–and had not eaten all day. He asked if we had anything–and I told him we had left over casserole in the fridge, but I wasn’t sure he would like it. Well, I was wrong! Like I said, it’s his favorite dish–and even though he’s a Chef–his version just can’t top mine!

Honestly–the recipe is amazingly easy and versatile. In fact, there a couple of different ways to create it–but that end up the same! For this version–you get the LONG way!

Sadly, there are no “measurable” ingredients! Sorry–this one is all pour and dump!!

First, line the bottom of your pan with raw pork chops. The size of the pan and number of pork chops needed will depend on your family size. I use a large casserole dish with 5 pork chops for 6 people. Sprinkle the top of the pork chops with salt and pepper and garlic powder. It goes into the oven at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, you are ready for level two. Again based on family size you may need to add only 1 can–but for my 6 people–I put 2 cans of Mushroom Soup in a bowl, add 1 can of milk, and a can of chopped mushrooms. Stir to mix, and then (after draining the grease from the cooked chops) pour mixture over the pork chops to cover. This is in the oven for 10 minutes. As soon as you put this in the oven, cut off the top of a package of Stove Top stuffing. Add 1 1/2 Cups of water directly into the Stove Top bag–it’s waterproof–you are fine! Let this sit for the remainder of the 10 minutes. When the time is up, sprinkle the softened stuffing all over the top of the soup mixture, again to cover. This goes back into the oven for 10 more minutes.

When finished–scoop out each pork chop, turning them over onto the plate. Stuffing is now on the bottom, with a yummy gravy spilling through, and a yummy gravied pork chop looking up at you! That’s it! That is a two dish meal, and it tastes amazing!!

I wish I had a fun tale of a vacation where we got smashing drunk and a mele ensued, but being the non-drinking type–and actually a little on the boring side, I don’t have one of those stories! However, the Chef…He’s got some wild ones! And they say you can’t change a person–his life has done a total 180 since he married me 11 years ago, poor guy. Gone are the all night parties with assorted bad boys and bimbos. He’s home every night, rather late–but whatever time he feels OK about leaving the restaurant. We really are boring old people!

But my most memorable trip took place as newlyweds. We were going on a road trip to check out a couple hotel properties where my husband might like to work. We started in Arizona, and then moved on to San Diego up to Marina Del Rey and then home to Utah through Las Vegas. We stayed up late, we slept in, we ate amazing food and we just took our time to see the different cities, and all of the attractions that each had to offer. Sea World was my husbands favorite, and we were even filmed for a local television show–we never got to see! It was just a fun road trip hangin’ out with my man. We ended up taking the job in Arizona, and lived there for four years before moving here to Chicago.

Now…let me tell you…there are 1000’s of Chicago things to do! We’ve had the opportunity to see much of the city, and enjoy many of the amenities. In fact, for our anniversary in a couple of weeks, I’m thinking we will be getting a hotel room downtown and living like tourists for the weekend. I would love to take one of the sightseeing tours available. We took one in San Francisco and LOVED it! It was just a fun opportunity to see the city. There is an entire newsletter devoted to attractions in 23 cities across the country. The Chef is from Chicago–but I’m not sure he’s really seen the “real” Chicago–through the eyes of a tourist. So that might be really fun!

Last night the Chef and I had the chance to have dinner at Jimmy’s Char House in Elgin. First off, we didn’t have the kids with us, so it was AWESOME! But most important the food was really good. I had the NY Strip and my husband had the skirt steak, both were wonderful–but I really enjoyed their salad the most. Really strange, but something made that salad fabulous! I tried really hard not to over eat, and ended up bringing half of the meal home in a doggy bag-which I will enjoy later this afternoon.

The prices were a bit on the high side, and the restaurant a bit too dark for my taste–but the ambiance was amazing. There were a few stain glass windows that I would bring home to my own home! There is an old fashioned stove when you first walk in the restaurant. I’d heard of this stove for many years–as my in laws claim that they have one just like it. Let me tell you-the stove is cool–but the in laws stove that is up for sale is a thousand times cooler! I’ll have to upload a photo later–it’s a stove from the early 1900’s and it’s super cool!

School will be out in this area in 2 weeks. I’m planning to go home to Utah for a few weeks in the summer and will most likely be driving. My problem…last time I drove my van to Utah, we broke down in Laramie, Wyoming and had to rent a car to drive the rest of the way. Such a headache! That trip ended with us trading in that van and buying a new one. Now, I want to drive it again, but I have no interest in driving my van. I’m planning to rent a car for the trip, but a three week car rental for a trip across the country really adds up. It’s still cheaper than flying the 5 of us out and renting a car for a few weeks also…so I’m stumped!

I’ve never looked into a car rental from Advantage.com, but if you look at their Specials and Discounts page, they are currently offering cars for $20.00! That could be the whole trip for less than $500! That would be unbeatable, and it would save the wear and tear on my car for the ride as well.

I’m going to have to read the fine print to really make sure this is possible, but at the moment, this is my plan! I’ll let you know how it goes!

This is one of the best shows on TV. First off, you get Gordon Ramsay…that’s going to make good TV in and of itself. But when you throw in his ego versus the ego of the restaurant owner he’s there to help–it’s a train wreck that you just can’t help but watch.

Let’s face it, this man knows his stuff! I’m married to a Chef, and honestly, he knows just as much as this guy…about everything having to do with the food industry. My Chef is amazing to watch as well, but the one difference…he doesn’t yell…EVER! So there’s a nice contrast!

There is a DVD out of just Kitchen Nightmare episodes. I’ve Tivo’d every episode, so I don’t really need it, but honestly, I love this guy!

This is a photo of dinner! It’s Yaki-soba (yaki=fried, soba=noodle). I used to make this dish, minus all of the extras when I was poor and living in Japan. You could buy soba noodles (3 packages) for around $2.00, so this was a staple in my diet. I have found them since I’ve been home in the frozen food section of many Asian food stores and have made this meal (with the extras) hundreds of times for my family. It is one of their favorites. It can be made with any type of meat (or none at all), I usually use beef sliced thin and cooked with diced onion. Then I add whatever takes the longest to cook, broccoli, carrots, peppers, and more julienne onions. Then when they are getting close to being cooked, I add in the things that don’t need so long–mushrooms (rarely used), pea pods, bean sprouts and shredded cabbage. After all of my veggies and meat are cooked–I drop them into a bowl–add a cup of water to the wok and the three seasoning packets that come with my soba noodles. When that is boiling-I add three packages of soba and cook through (2 minutes-maybe) then I remove the noodles from the water and toss with the meat and veggies. In Japan, we squirted mayo over the top–yummy–but I’ve never done that here. It’s too sweet to mix it with soy sauce, but I do like salt and pepper on top.

If you were interested in making this for your family, you would want to find the frozen yaki-soba noodles by Maruchan–it looks like this:

And you can find it in most of the bigger Asian food stores. It’s mighty tasty–and a very healthy dinner packed full of protein and vegetables for your family. My kids love it–and one of my husband’s, the Chef, favorite dinners.

Do you remember last November when the Chef and I headed to Las Vegas for Postie-con?? We went in order to be among the first to get to try the new SocialSpark network. Mind you it bought me zero time in getting early, as I got it with everyone else…but no worries…the trip was a wonderful experience for the Chef and I, but I digress!

Social Spark is now open to the public and going strong. I found my Sister’s Blogger Profile online at Social Spark and that was fun to see! It really was a cool site to navigate. I didn’t know how to find an individual profile on its own, but I just typed in a few words into the search function and not only did her profile pop up, but her blog as well! That’s nice because I only know people in the network by their “sign ons” and they aren’t always their real first name, so that cut down a lot of the hassel!

I haven’t taken an opportunity on the new Social Spark network, but I hope I’ll be able to really sit down and figure it all out in the coming days and just get my feet wet! Social Spark is a great way to get paid to blog about the things you are interested in, just like I did. This post just happens to be sponsored by Social Spark!

I need some ideas to do with the kids on Mother’s Day! The Chef will be working all day and the other family members will be at a family dinner. So it’s just the five of us and I want to do something fun. It is “my” day after all! I was thinking about driving to Galena, but then the gas cost alone cut that choice. But maybe downtown Chicago would be a fun destination, but just what to do!

I do get a bit overwhelmed with four kids on my own, so it can’t be too much movement or I will be lost! Maybe just church and a fabulous breakfast…made and cleaned up by me! Yep, it’s great to be Mom!!