Eat!Eat! You’re skin and bones!

I threw together a roasted pepper couscous salad yesterday that was pretty tasty, and was enjoyed by the little dude as well. Here’s what you need:

1 cup chicken broth (use vegetable broth if you want to go vegetarian)

1 cup couscous

2 shepherd’s peppers, halved and cleaned

1 cup kale, washed, stemmed and chopped

2 cups of broccoli florets

1/4 cup sesame seeds

neutral oil (peanut, for example)

lemon juice

soy sauce

First, put the peppers on a baking sheet, and baste with a small amount of oil. Throw the sheet into a 425 degree Farenheit  oven. after 5 to 10 minutes, flip the peppers over. Take them out when the skin has darkened considerably.  Let the peppers cool.

While the peppers cool, boil the chicken broth, add it to the couscous, and cover.

In a hot pan (medium high heat), put a drizzle of oil in, and after a moment, throw in the chopped kale. Keep stirring the kale, and sprinkle some lemon juice on top. Take the kale out of the pan just as it starts to brown, and add it to the couscous bowl.

In the same pan, throw in the broccoli. Add soy sauce, about a tablespoon ( or more if you like soy). After a few minutes, no more than 5,toss the broccoli into the couscous bowl.

Back to the pan-throw the sesame seeds in and vigilantly watch them and shake them around the pan as they toast. They will toast very quickly so pay attention. Burnt seeds are very unpleasant. When the seeds have a nice golden hue, they go into the bowl.

Now that the peppers have cooled, peel the skin off and dice them. Add them to the ever popular bowl.

Last thing to do is mix it all together and serve. Add salt/pepper to taste.

Hey, soda Jerk! Gimme some cash!

I love to see philanthropy being used as a marketing tool, and I don’t mean that sarcastically. Every company is going to dump millions of dollars into convincing you to buy their widgets and doodads, so when they choose to give money to good causes as a part of that buyer coercion, I’m onboard.

The particular business doing the wooing is Pepsi, with their “Pepsi Refresh Project”. Good ideas for projects in a variety of categories are submitted, and the people (that’s you!) vote on the best ones. There are a lot of great cause that could really use the money, and if you can find one that you support, mobilize and vote frequently. The competition gets pretty fierce.

My choice? http://www.refresheverything.ca/braintumourfoundationofcanada.I did some writing work for Brain Tumour Foundation, which included some survivor interviews, and their stories affected me so profoundly that I’d love to see them get some cash. So go, my minions, flock to the site and start voting! Show them what over 10 people can accomplish on the internet!

Today’s fun fact: the iPhone spelling auto-correct changes ‘pcp’ to ‘oxo’. These things are not similar.

run from the terror of…the Brown Sound!

I wish I was more relaxed when bathroom calamities happen outside of the house. The little dude wants to do well, but fast-moving surprise stool can catch the best of us off-guard. I was slow to notice that  his walk to the bathroom quickly became a strange waddle, and when we got into the bathroom and the severity of the hull breach was  evident, I was a little too tense. Maybe panicky? It’s hard to be calm when you are desperately trying to limit your direct poop contact. So, I got stressed out, Max was stressed out, and we eventually sorted everything out.

I think I eventually returned to comforting dad mode, at least I hope so.  It was a classic “oh the public shame” of poop on the floor and a nude from the waist down boy, but that’s just my social anxiety talking (technically, I think it’s my mother’s anxiety that was drilled deep into my psyche, but let’s leave blame for some other time). I have to relax and accept that, like rain, some poop must fall. That is why backup pants are a must.

Fun fact: the line “some rain must fall” is from The Rainy Day, a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.Also, Wadsworth is a fantastically comedic name.