No Red Wine!

All right, my two oldest are at preschool and Sawyer is rolling around on the floor.  Finally, I found some time to write!

I've been cooking a bunch of new recipes this week.  I just got tired of the same old, same old, so I yanked out my latest Rachel Ray magazine and got to work.  I decided to cook pork chops on Tuesday night.  It was pork chops with mushrooms and thyme. 

I'm getting out all of my ingredients when Andrew walks into the door from work.  I go to get my last ingredient, red wine, and I find out we have no red wine.  Holy hell, Batman!  I went into crisis mode.  My house is out of red wine and white wine.  I just have a bottle of champagne which was supposed to be drunk on Valentine's Day, but we sort of forgot about it.  So, I continue my search, high and low, for an elusive bottle for some reason I'm sure I have around the house.  To no avail, I am out of red wine.

I turn to Andrew and say, "We're out of red wine.  How can we be out of red wine?  Why didn't you tell me we opened the last bottle, so I could put it on my grocery list?  Why didn't you tell me?  We're out of red wine!  I need it for dinner!"  I might have gone a little overboard, but damn it, it was an ingredient I needed a 1/2 cup of to reduce into my sauce!  Andrew looked at me dumb struck for a minute and said, "I'm sorry?  I just thought you knew."

I'm trying to figure out what to do.  I decide to replace the wine with more beef broth, but ha ha, I only have the exact amount of beef broth I need.  I think I might have vehemently cursed the poor box of beef broth.  Andrew finally came up to me and with brilliance said, "Why don't you just use some liquor instead?"

I had my Aha moment!  I ran to the liquor cabinet and grabbed the bottle of Jack Daniel's to replace the red wine.  I reduced my dear ol' friend JD and prepared the rest of dinner.

It was a success!  My pork chops were pretty awesome and quite juicy (to my surprise).  Andrew, Jackson, and Cullen all ate with relish and finished their entire plates.  Yes, awesome mom moment!  And today I picked up some more red wine, so I wouldn't have to go into crisis mode again.

This morning I was feeding Sawyer at the kitchen table while Jackson and Cullen were off playing.  Jackson came up to me to show me (again) his cool turtle shirt from Hawaii.  Sawyer was taking forever to finish his bottle (could have something to do with the fact I had to make him a little bottle at 4am).

All of the sudden the house gets too quiet.  I look at Jackson and said, "Could you be Mommy's helper and go find Cullen?"  Jackson enthusiastically says, "Yes!" then yells, "Cullen! Where are you?!"

I sarcastically tell him, "I could have done that.  Go find where he is."  And he trots off.  About a minute later, I hear arguing from my bedroom with a,"Mom!" followed by screaming.

I go find out what is going on to find Cullen, in my bathroom, with toothpaste smeared all over a cabinet door.  I guess he was trying to finger paint or brush his teeth.  Who knows what goes through that boy's mind some days?!  I was quite pissed to find this because I was already running late.

Commence the clean up of toothpaste on bathroom cabinets, counter, Cullen's hands and shirt.  I love my kids, but it's times like these I wish I could sell them with the house.  Think of it as a two for one deal!  Thank goodness it's Friday!