I didn’t know you were coming Ore-Ida made you some potatoes!

Image courtesy of Scott Costello

I honestly know only one person who doesn’t like french fries. Of course, that sacrilegious person would have to be the Murse! Oh, he’ll eat them — and he does like them if they’re well seasoned or covered with chili or cheese or something like that. But he doesn’t really experience or understand the absolute elation and comfort that some people get from eating plain old french fries. As it happens, he’s more of a tot man. I, however, love all things french fries. Even just typing about them makes me slightly salivate. I love the crisp exterior yielding to the pillowy center. I love them topped with BBQ sauce, ketchup, honey mustard, ranch dressing and other sauces, depending on my mood. I love them beside a burger or on top of a salad. I love them on a plate as the meal themselves, on occasion. I love them dipped in a milkshake (sinful combination of salty and sweet).

I must say, I’m like a child when it comes to fries. I crave, anticipate and delight in them. If I order a meal at a restaurant, nine times out of ten, I’m not substituting my french fries for another side. No way. But you can’t always go out to get your fry fix. Well … maybe some people can, but I have a budget. I have to cook at home a lot more often than I can indulge in having someone else cook and clean up.

Johnsonville Sausage – October Noms

This month, the Allrecipes Allstars teamed up with Johnsonville sausage. I have to tell you, I love their brand all the way around. Beyond the fact that they make sausage that I routinely buy anyway, they are ridiculously generous with both swag and feedback. So allow me to gush about it for a few hundred words.

Johnsonville sent coupons for ground Italian sausage. I discovered after I bought sweet Italian links (my store didn’t have ground) that my coupons could probably have been used for bratwurst or something else, but I kind of wanted to push the Murse into eating the Italian anyway. I mean, we’re huge fans of brat, so it’s not like we really need to try it, you know? Not to sound like a low-brow jerk, but I’m not going to take a brat and make it into something different. It’s going to get simmered in beer and thrown on the grill. When it’s nice and charred, it’s going to be topped with Bavarian sauerkraut and mustard on a potato bun, and it’s going in my face. Period. No fancy bratwurst recipes for us, thanks.

Tru Moo Tricks and Treats

Okay, so I’m a HUGE chocolate milk fan. Huge. When BzzAgent sent me an email about doing a TruMoo Halloween promotion, I was very excited! Buy chocolate milk, enter to win a Hollywood vacation. Double win!

When I was a kid, my parents would get chocolate powder or syrup. Sometimes, it was Nesquik, which was slightly better than Ovaltine but still not great. Hershey’s syrup is okay, but you have to use a lot, and it still doesn’t taste amazing. The chocolate milk I could get at lunch in the cafeteria — real chocolate milk — was like liquid crack. I loved it, but we never had it in the house.

1 – 2 – 3 Simple Rules, Son

I remember, perhaps incorrectly, that I had a lot of rules in the house when I was growing up. Don’t do this, do do that, don’t forget the other. I’m not a huge fan of detailed lists of rules, mostly because they are tedious and there is something lost in the minutia of “the rule doesn’t specifically say not to do that, so I’m not subject to punishment if I do” nonsense. This is the realm of politics, and I’m not setting my five-year-old up to find the gray area/arguable point in every situation.

Now, I understand that kids are going to get in trouble. They’re going to forget; they’re going to think that we won’t find out; they’re going to just plain make bad choices (hell, some of us continue to make really bad choices well into our adult lives — looking in the mirror here). But, we didn’t want to overwhelm the boy with lots of rules. I think that the Murse and I have come up with three simple ones that are pretty fail-proof. They’re rules everyone should follow.

A Sick Sick Policy

So, Kaeloo has had a high fever and cough all week. Between Monday and Wednesday, she wavered between 102° and 103.5°F. I tried my best to keep her cool with lukewarm baths and acetaminophen. Archoo showed his first signs or the same symptoms Thursday when he woke up with a scratchy throat, low-grade fever and large case of whining. I read up on when to call the doctor as far as temperatures and durations, so I ended up calling yesterday. I also kept both kids out of school. Kaeloo missed both Tuesday and Thursday, and Archoo missed Thursday and Friday.