The Crowd Pleasing Recipe

I'm not claiming ownership of this recipe nor am I stating that there is any sort of nutritional value to it. I will tell you this though, you children will eat it! Hell, the large child we women call our husbands may eat it as well. Hell, it's fun.

And seeing that most things I make here in Brazil are from scratch (there are many pros and cons to that one), I am very excited when I find something easy to make on a Friday night as a treat. Ok, I'm totally lying there. I made it just last night for dinner at the request of my two little monkeys. What can I say? Mondays are a bitch, they ate AMAZINGLY well at lunch, and screw it.

So here is how you do it:

1. Chop up some raw defrosted hot dogs.
2. Get out some raw spaghetti pasta .
3. Feed the spaghetti through the raw pieces of hot dog. Think of it as making fake meat/unhealthy Shish kabobs. Of course if you were me you'd use either vitamin infused pasta or whole wheat. Just don't tell the kids you are ruining their crap by adding something good for them.
4. If you are particularly patient and have a lot of hot dogs to spare, have the kids help. My boys loved making these! FYI, you will lose 1/3 of the hot dogs in the "helping" process.
5. Put them in the pan and boil. It takes like 10 minutes.
6. Enjoy this quick, fun and cheap meal!

Pasta Brain and Arguing with My Husband

Got in an argument with Mr. Rant today. I hate arguing with him.

And of course I'm a woman so my brain works like a bowl of pasta. We start bickering about one thing and I bring something up from a week ago. Not fair, I know, but you've seen bowls of pasta! Everything is all tangled together. I can't help it, it's biology.

So we start in on how inconvenient my toe breakage is for him. To be fair, that is my interpretation of it. That then goes to certain people who shall remain nameless, how the morning diaper belongs in the trash not on the table, and how he can't tell me anything.

In my defense, if it is dropped on you that your account is 1,000 in the red, you will be a little shocked and/or ask a lot of questions.  But that was months ago and my reaction was justified.  Give a girl some notice! Today we are R$1.50 in the red and so on in increments of R$10.

In his defense, how annoying is it to bitch about how clumsy your wife is to only have her complain about how your Mother has yet to go see your son play soccer. Related? Of course not. Again, bowl of pasta and I have no control over it!

I know what you are thinking, Brazilians are passionate and argumentative people. They like a good back and forth. Not Mr. Rant. He's not so into that kind of reaction. He likes smooth and calm, no waves rocking the family boat.  The problem is that I'm not a canoe, I'm a diesel speedboat cerca way too clunky to be on the water. I make waves by walking, aka broken toe.

Add in lack of sleep, stress from work, stress from parenthood, and no date night. We have to have some pretty good humor, which my household rarely lacks. This morning was one of those rare mornings.  Giggles were low and Sass was WAY high.

Ah well, free English lesson in how to bitch at your spouse for the neighbors.

As for Mr. Rant, once I drive you crazy, you'll have an easier time relating to me. I love you!