Mama McG's World

Did anyone else watch The National Geographic Bee? I feel dumb, I feel like I know nothing about the geography of the world.

Example #1 and #2 below, sorry Fantasia and Chaka.

I think I may be one of the only people following this season.

Especially when your husband has just had rotator cuff surgery (he is in SO much pain and can’t even sleep in our bed, he’s on the family room recliner) and you have two small children at home that take up 100% of your time.

Baby Kingston was born at 10:14 last night. He is a big boy, weighing in at 8 lbs 13 oz and is 21 1/2 in long. Mom and baby are doing great. Can’t wait until I can get back to hold the little man!

My sister is at the hospital, I’ll hopefully have a niece or nephew within hours! Good luck, Kristiana!

Ash requested a Dirty Martini tutorial, so here you go! (This is the way my husband and I make ours, not necessarily the way most people make theirs). This might get wordy because my husband is out of town and I have been speaking to very small people for the last 2 days and I miss conversing with other adults.

First, we prefer blue cheese olives and have found that the pre-stuffed store bought kind weren’t great and were very expensive (about $8 for a jar of maybe 15 olives). We have started stuffing our own olives. We buy pimento stuffed olives ($8 for 2 giant jars of olives) and blue cheese ($8 for a giant container) from Costco. We then pop the pimentos out (I’ve found flat the end of a citrus peeler works great) and stuff some fresh blue cheese in. You can do this for a whole jar when you have a few minutes and then put them with the juice into a container, this saves on the mess when you want them.

Now, the most important part, the Martini!

We usually use Svedka because it’s a better price (at Costco, side note, I have an addiction to Costco, as any of my friends can tell you, it is an on going joke) and you don’t necessarily need the best stuff at home because you can control the amount of “dirty” to give/take away from the flavor. Also, we have found that the juice with the olives is not enough for number of martinis that can be made with the number of olives in a jar (even the pre-made jars or even just the regular jars of olives, we like them dirty).

I usually pour the vodka in the glass to make the right amount, you need a little less then the glass can hold as you will be adding olive juice and olives. Then, pour vodka into the shaker, put olives in glass. We don’t use dry vermouth b/c we don’t feel it adds anything and can sometimes overwhelm the drink. Add your desired amount of olive juice. Add ice. Shake. Strain into martini glass. If there is extra, sometimes I over fill the glass and add too much juice, I will pour it into a small juice glass with a piece of ice, then when there is enough room in my glass, I add it.

There you go. The McG tutorial to (Extra) Dirty Martinis. Enjoy!

PS as I am following the WW points, I have measured out my martini glass (with water) to find that the big glass is 8 oz (19 points!) and the small glass is 5 oz (12 points). But one of these is more then enough.

Is no one working today? Why I there so much local traffic? Seriously it’s like a Saturday afternoon out here.

I love all of my friends but I am the only one that has kids, though that is never an issue and only 2 of my best friends live in the Chicago area. For the time that we have lived here in the suburbs, 2 1/2 years, I have tried to meet some other moms in the area that I might become friends with. I have met a bunch of great moms and when we are all together with our kids we have fun but I hadn’t met anyone that I would just call up on the phone for last minute lunch or ice cream with the kids. Well, I have finally found one, Amanda. She and I just hit it off from the start (now I sound like I’m dating her). We’re meeting up at a local ice cream shop with the kids in just a little bit, last minute minute plans and I love that I have someone to do this with. BUT, here’s the bad news, she and her husband have a lake house up in Michigan and they are leaving Saturday to go up there for the whole summer (Luckies)! They have invited us as a family or even just me and the kids up there but I don’t know if we’ll be able to make it up at any point. Hopefully we can stay in touch over the next few months and maybe when she gets back we can do a Moms Night Out, that just seems so far away.